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The 5-Step System That Gives Solopreneurs Consistent Clients · The Life-First Solopreneur

• 0:00
  Carly Ries: If you've ever felt like you're doing all the right things in your business, but clients still aren't coming in consistently, this episode is going to hit home. Today, we're talking about why most Solopreneurs struggle with marketing, and it's not because they're on the wrong platform or posting the wrong content. It's because they're missing the foundation underneath all of it. Jaime Ellithorpe joins us to break down her five step system for building a stable client generating business. And trust me, the order of these steps matters more than you might think.
• 0:30
  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. As part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all things Solopreneurship, 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.
• 1:18
  Because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. No matter where you are in your journey, we've got your back. Jaime, I am so bummed that Joe is not here today because the way you were on the show is he called me and he was like, I just had a great conversation with this gal, Jaime. I really wanna have her on the show. I want you to meet her.
• 1:37
  He was teeing you up, and then he got pulled into something. And now I get to talk to you. So I'm just gonna call this girls club and we're gonna have a great chat today. So thank you so much for coming on.
• 1:48
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Yeah. So I'm excited to have a chat and see what comes from it.
• 1:52
  Carly Ries: Well, something that we start every episode the same way is, we ask an icebreaker question. And so I'm gonna ask you what you wish you would have known before becoming a solopreneur?
• 2:02
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Well, probably if I would have known a lot of things jokingly enough, I would never have started. Maybe that's what most of us think. Right? But probably one of the things that I wish I would have known is that in order to grow a business, you have to have a system to consistently find, get in front of, and convert clients and customers. That was the biggest challenge for me that I did not realize going into business for myself and probably like so many in the audience, that's probably a huge headache.
• 2:35
  But I wished I would have known that sooner than later.
• 2:38
  Carly Ries: Isn't it crazy how much you just kind of kick the tires in the beginning just trying to figure it out? And then once you have those systems and processes in place, it's like, oh, I wasted so much time. And we all go through it. So looking back on those days, what were the biggest mindset shifts you had to make as you transitioned from the corporate world into solopreneurship?
• 3:01
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Yeah. So the biggest one for me was letting go of the paycheck every two weeks. I would love to tell a funny story because I think it just, illustrates totally where I was at. I had this great friend who was in business, and I had been talking to her for months. And I want to start my own business, but I'm afraid.
• 3:20
  And I just kept riding fence. I'll never forget, I was out on a walk and I was talking to her on my cell phone when I was walking and she started laughing. And I said, what are you laughing about? And she said, I just got the funniest visual and I have to share it with you. She said, I saw this little bird and he was sitting on this little twig.
• 3:40
  And all of a sudden, he flipped upside down, and he was holding on so tight to the limb that he was willing to hang upside down. And she said, that's exactly what you're doing by holding on to this job. Is that you want to be an entrepreneur so much, but you are so afraid to let go. You're like this little bird that I just saw, you know, this little vision that came to me. And so we just started laughing, and I will never forget that.
• 4:06
  And at that moment, I realized that I had to take the risk and let go and just go with this feeling that I knew was right for me.
• 4:17
  Carly Ries: Yeah. Absolutely. I love that story. Who would have known that that would have become so metaphorical?
• 4:23
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Well, I realized at that moment it was really bad that I was holding on that hard if my friend Robin was seeing this visual of a little bird hanging upside down on a twig.
• 4:34
  Carly Ries: Listen, with the bird story is named Robin.
• 4:38
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Ain't that funny? yeah. That probably just sealed the deal. Right? I didn't ask her if the bird was a Robin, but her name is Robin.
• 4:44
  Carly Ries: Yes. That's amazing. Well, going back to the whole systems thing, you've created a five steps to stability business system. Say that five times fast.
• 4:56
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Yep.
• 4:56
  Carly Ries: To guide all entrepreneurs. But for this show specifically, can you break down what that means for solopreneurs and why it's so effective?
• 5:04
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Yeah. So kind of illustrating my backstory about trying to find my own way in this entrepreneurial journey. There's a little bit of me in that, but also through my clients. So when I first started my business, I was doing a lot business consulting and working with solopreneurs and other small business owners. And I started to watch patterns in my coaching.
• 5:27
  And I realized that there was a certain journey or a series of steps that small businesses needed to take in the right order to move straight forward instead of that zigzag and to really be able to get results faster. So I put these five stepping stones in place to help guide small business owners towards their next step of goals in their business. And usually that's more clients and more cash flow. So that's kind of how the system was built. But within those five steps, there are five things if done in the right order will really help you grow your business strategically.
• 6:04
  The first one is cash flow. So whether you're still in a job and you're looking to jump, now is the time to reserve some of your paycheck or look at some investments that you're willing to leverage in your business and making sure that you're in a place financially stable so that when you do go out on your own and there are some unexpected events, whether it's expenses or clients aren't coming in as fast, you're not panicking. Because that was the one thing I saw with business owners is when they're in panic mode, there is no getting their attention to move forward strategically. So that was the first thing I saw was feeling a little bit of relief and having some cash flow available. And if you're already in business, that might be doing a quick sale on some old products that you have or reigniting former customers.
• 6:55
  Whatever you can do to get a stabilization of a little bit of cash flow under your belt. Now you've got that confidence and that headspace freedom to move forward. So that's step number one, quick cash flow. Number two is what I call my client attractor blueprint process. That is setting up the foundations of your marketing, so you know exactly who your target market is.
• 7:17
  You know exactly how to talk to them in a way that they can hear you, and you know how to position the solution that you offer in a way that they instantly get it. So that's your foundations of marketing. Step three is your personal brand or your business brand. Now that you have a clear idea of how you talk to your customers and how you're going to sell them, now you want to differentiate yourself in your market. So step three is branding.
• 7:46
  Step four is now that you've got everything in place, you've positioned your offer, you know how to talk to them, You're now standing out from the crowd. Now you need a sales system that consistently closes business in a way that feels authentic. It feels real. You love it, and it does not feel creepy, slimy, or pushy. And then the fifth thing is once you get all those things put together, let's put that into an assistant so that we can scale and grow and get you to the next level of business.
• 8:17
  And for a lot of my clients, that's automations. So that they're not doing a lot of the day to day things to grow their business. We've scaled that. We've put it into systems that automatically reach out to people at the right times and things like that so that they can step back into the role that they love doing the most, which is coaching or consulting or whatever that thing is by helping their clients. So that's the steps to stability system.
• 8:41
  Carly Ries: I love so much the number three is personal brand and branding because I think so often solopreneurs put that as number two and that they wanna push their idea of what they want onto an audience rather than figuring the audience out first and then their brand. they're like, oh, but I have this idea for a logo and how I wanna present myself. And it's like, well, if your audience doesn't want you to present yourself that way, then who cares?
• 9:05
  That makes me really happy. I wanna talk about marketing for a second because so many solopreneurs are overwhelmed by marketing options. I am a marketer, and I am overwhelmed by marketing options.
• 9:17
  Jaime Ellithorpe: I hear you.
• 9:18
  Carly Ries: First strategic move you would recommend that they make for marketing?
• 9:22
  Jaime Ellithorpe: So it kind of goes back to what you just said about knowing your audience. That's first and foremost before really even knowing who you are. Because you're going to shape who you are based on who it is that you wanna serve. So I always choose marketing strategies that align with where my people are.
• 9:42
  So for me, that's LinkedIn. LinkedIn is where my ideal clients referral partners and opportunities live each and every day. that's why that's been my focus. So you want to layer that first. Maybe that's in person.
• 9:56
  If you're a local business, maybe doing a local event is actually better for you than being online. But you've got to figure out where your ideal customers hang out. And then you want to build everything kind of backwards to meet them at that place. So that's what I always say first is figure out what strategy is gonna put you in front of your ideal clients. And then you can layer other things around that that are secondary.
• 10:20
  Carly Ries: So let me ask you going off of your recommendations before you get started and finding the right direction. So many people for their marketing tactics now, and I get so frustrated because I always say strategy before tactics. Like not just tactics. But people are like, well there's a new TikTok trend.
• 10:38
  So if I do this, the people might might wanna view, my business. And they kinda just grasp at straws based off of hot topics or trendy things. What do you say to those people and how can they actually find these places where their audience is?
• 10:57
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Yeah. I think you said something important there. There's a fundamental difference between a strategy and a tactic. The strategy is the foundation of your business. The tactic is the icing on the cake.
• 11:08
  So you've got to have a strong foundation first. And if you're just out there with the tactic of the week, you're not gonna get the consistent results that you're looking for. I think something else that people misunderstand when it comes to marketing is that when you look at what we call a buyer's journey or we probably call it a pipeline, a sales pipeline, if you've heard it that way. Within that journey or pipeline, there are different segments. And really what we're doing with marketing is we're building an end to end relationship.
• 11:41
  So you've got to figure out where your target market is or where your prospect is within that segment, and then that's the strategy that you want to deploy then. Because I think a lot of times people are using the right platform, but they're misusing where it's at in that specific journey of the relationship. So that's where you kind of have to line things up is you've got the segments and then you've got to figure out which strategy meets your ideal customer in that particular segment. for instance, TikTok is an awareness strategy. So if you're just trying to get people to see you and recognize that you exist, that's fantastic.
• 12:24
  But you can't expect TikTok to convert a customer. And I think that's where a lot of people get frustrated or they're silently misusing things is it's not that the tool is wrong, and it might be that you're saying the right things. You're just not using the tool and the right stuff of your customer's journey.
• 12:42
  Carly Ries: Absolutely. So once you figure out your audience and where they are, and you figure out where they are in the journey, you need to focus on the messaging, obviously, for each phase of the journey. What mistakes do you see solopreneurs make time and time again when it comes to their messaging?
• 12:59
  Jaime Ellithorpe: The number one mistake that I see is they don't fully understand their market. And it's been so interesting to me on this whole journey of growing my business and working with people all day long on marketing is whether they're new, they're fresh out of the gate in a business, or I've seen extremely successful and established businesses, they really don't know their ideal customer at a deep profound level. And if you cannot reiterate the conversation that your ideal prospect is having in their head at two and 3AM when they're awake with their problem, then your messaging's not clear enough. And most people that I've run across, I would literally say even in the agency side of my business where people are wanting me to build client acquisition systems when it really comes down to it and we start getting analytics on outreach, oftentimes it's because they really can't answer three questions deep about their ideal client. And that's where a lot of marketing goes wrong in my opinion and what I've seen.
• 14:04
  Carly Ries: Oh, I couldn't agree more. And aside from not knowing who your audience is, what else would you say separates a person from, struggling to get clients versus someone who consistently brings them in?
• 14:18
  Jaime Ellithorpe: I wish there was just one clear answer. A lot of times it's really just sitting down with a diagnostic and going back to that pipeline or that journey and looking at each phase of that and figuring out where the snags are. But I think another fundamental problem I often see is that we start a business because we have a passion or an expertise for helping people. So we automatically assume that we know what our clients and customers need. And I see a lot of business owners trying to sell that, then it is listening to their target market or their ideal customer and really tailoring a solution based on the needs of that person.
• 15:02
  So that would probably be the second thing where I see a lot of people go wrong is if it's not a messaging problem, it's usually a positioning problem. And it's more like, wanna tell you what you need instead of making you felt heard. And that I'm listening to you and based on what you're telling me, this is what I suggest we do together or or that you invest in.
• 15:26
  Carly Ries: I couldn't agree more. Well, I want to circle back. So we were talking about LinkedIn a bit ago, and you emphasized building genuine connections. It's LinkedIn, for example. How can solopreneurs cultivate those meaningful relationships without being salesy, whether it is on LinkedIn or in the real world?
• 15:43
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Yeah. I love to use the analogy of dating to marriage, is that no customer or client is ever found until a warm relationship is built. That is the number one thing is until you have a warm relationship, nothing is going to happen in your business. And so it goes back to dating. You go on a first date and you might really like that person, but if they were asked to ask you to marry them, that would be weird and too forward and way too pushy.
• 16:14
  And that's what we're doing in our businesses, is we're not taking the steps just like a courting or dating process in order to create that relationship to where a yes or a marriage proposal, in our case, a sale is ever possible. So if you ever violate any of those steps along that customer journey, that's when things start to not only feel weird for us, and that's where we feel pushy or you know, we feel like we're being inauthentic or something like that. And then our potential customer or client is put off, whether it's subconsciously or consciously, because there was a step that was missed. So that's another suggestion I have too is if sales aren't landing, look at that entire process that you're building and see if you're too forward or maybe you're not asking at all. Try to figure out where is that happy medium.
• 17:10
  Because you still need to push that relationship forward, but you can't do it too fast. But you also can't not offer the next step either.
• 17:20
  Carly Ries: What role does consistency play in networking and like lead generation? I feel like people try it, but they just get burned out so easily. So what would your advice be there?
• 17:31
  Jaime Ellithorpe: So it kind of goes back to that whole relationship thing. I think people get too impatient and they get too frustrated that things are not converting fast enough. And so consistency wins. One of the things that I tell people especially about LinkedIn, and I see it evolving too. I'm sensing a big shift even in 2026 as early as we are. That is really not a sales machine anymore.
• 17:54
  It's more of a credibility and validation system. And so in order to convert relationships, again, you've got to take the right steps and it's consistency over time. And what I love to tell people is a lot of times your competitors are just as eager as you are and impatient, and they'll often drop a relationship very early on if there's no buying signal. But I disbelieve that. I believe that most people, if they know, like, and trust you and you really solve a problem they have, will tend to buy from you, but the question is when.
• 18:28
  So it's continuing to foster that relationship, and that kind of goes back to step five of what we were talking about in the steps to stability. You can automate a lot of that piece so you don't lose track of people, whether that's the conversation itself or sending automated reminders to yourself that, hey, six months ago I talked to Mark and now it's time to follow-up. Whatever that looks like for you and your business is just never losing track of that relationship.
• 18:58
  Carly Ries: Okay. So speaking of step five and processes and automation, if you could recommend one tool or system, process, whatever, that every solopreneur should adopt to get more clarity and momentum in their business, what would it be and why?
• 19:14
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Some type of customer relationship management tool. That's one of the things I see with a lot of my clients is they're so focused on the front end of the journey about getting more people into my funnel or getting in front of more people or getting the word out that they forget the back end. That a lot of times, especially if you're in high ticket sales, you might even meet with a potential customer, but the chances of them buying in that first meeting are quite low. And a lot of people will get disappointed in that and just move on to the next potential prospect where if you continue to foster that relationship on the back end, they will turn into a sale. But if you don't have a system to continually track that relationship over time, stuff's gonna fall through the cracks.
• 19:57
  And that's where money's left on the table, and that becomes that invisible money that you forgot about, but it was still there. And they probably just went down the street and bought from somebody else because the relationship with you went cold.
• 20:10
  Carly Ries: Well, and I think there's a misconception that you need a lot of clients or customers to get a system like that, but that's not true at all. You just need a handful because you don't wanna be tracking everything on a post it note next to your desk or going through emails to see where the conversation left off. It's just like you're using duct tape in different areas. You just have a system.
• 20:31
  Even if you only have a handful of clients, it just makes your life so much easier, and it makes you look more professional in front of those clients. So I think that is a great point. Well, I have loved this conversation. I think it's so helpful just as a reminder for our listeners of just getting back to the basics even. Like, know your audience.
• 20:54
  And I think this will help so many people find further success with their messaging, with their market position. So I wanna ask you, because we ask all of our guests this question, what is your favorite quote about success?
• 21:05
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Oh, I've been living this one for a long time. So this kind of brings in the other half of my framework that we really didn't talk about today. We talked about marketing, but I also didn't talk about the internal side of business growth, which is mindset and manifesting. And that means being intentional with where you're headed. But my favorite quote that I've lived with for a long time, and there's different versions of it.
• 21:28
  So I'm just gonna give you the best of what I think is from Albert Einstein. And he says that no problem can be solved from the level of consciousness that created it. And what that means is if you are just constantly focused on a problem in your business, you're not at a level mentally where the solution can come to you. The solution is only going to come to you if you shift your thinking, open yourself to an expansion, or look for opportunities that might seem out of the norm or out of mainstream. And then being able to do that, oftentimes, problems will solve themselves.
• 22:08
  But if you're not willing to stop focusing on the problem, then the solution is very unlikely to come. So I've just always loved that line of thought from Albert Einstein.
• 22:18
  Carly Ries: That Albert Einstein. he's once smart guy.
• 22:22
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Yes.
• 22:22
  Carly Ries: Well, Jaime where can people find you if they wanna learn more?
• 22:26
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Absolutely. Well, my number one hangout is LinkedIn. So you can find me by my first and last name. You can find me at JaimeEllithorpe.com and you can also find me at 540strategies.com.
• 22:38
  Carly Ries: Wonderful. Well, this has been so great. Joe was right. He was like, you'll so enjoy talking to this gal and I couldn't agree more. thank you so much for coming on the show today.
• 22:47
  Jaime Ellithorpe: Thank you. Thanks for having me. I've enjoyed it.
• 22:49
  Carly Ries: And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. As always, please do that five star review. It helps us spread the word to other solopreneurs like you. Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform including YouTube, and share this episode with a friend. There's so much great information in it.
• 23:03
  I'm biased, but even if I wasn't the host, I would think there's so much great information. 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. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures?
• 23:26
  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.