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259. Planning for 2026? Listen To This Before You Do Anything Else · The Life-First Solopreneur

• 0:00
  Carly Ries: As solopreneurs, we love dreaming up shiny new plans for the new year. But what about the things we shouldn't bring with us? In this episode, we flip the script on traditional goal setting and walk through the habits, mindsets, and business practices that should be left in 2025. From creating content with no strategy, to falling for passive income fantasies, to saying yes to every client who blinks at you, the list is real, relatable, and absolutely freeing. So if you wanna step into 2026 with more clarity, less noise, and a business built for your life, not everyone else's, this conversation is your permission slip, so tune in.
• 0:37
  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.
• 1:25
  Because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. No matter where you are in your journey, we've got your back. Joe, it is that time of year where everybody is starting to think about their New Year's resolutions. They're planning for q one. Everybody is saying, this is what we're gonna do in 2026 This is how I'm gonna do it.
• 1:43
  Now all their plans are in place. But what a lot of people don't do is they don't talk about what they're gonna leave in 2025 or in the year prior. Because things don't always work even if you bring them into the new year. Maybe you just need to leave them in the past. So I thought we'd talk about a few of those today.
• 2:01
  Joe Rando: Yeah. And the world changes too. So something that was working last year or maybe worked in 2020 stopped working somewhere in mid twenty twenty five or something. You know, it's like just everything changes, and you have to be ready for that.
• 2:16
  Carly Ries: 2020 is the example.
• 2:21
  Joe Rando: Yeah. So many things worked before 2020.
• 2:24
  Carly Ries: Exactly. But if you don't mind, I wanna kick things off with something just as the marketer, I feel like I need to say this. You need to leave creating content without strategy in 2025. I feel like trends is such, can you see my air quotes? There we go.
• 2:42
  They're on screen. Trends is such a buzzword now because it's like, oh, let's do the latest TikTok trend. Let's do the latest YouTube trend. Let's do this.
• 2:52
  Let's do that. And it's like people are doing marketing because they think they need to be doing that kind of marketing even if it doesn't serve their business.
• 3:01
  And so I just wanna say, in 2026, make sure you have a strategy around all of the content you're creating, around all the marketing that you're doing, and know your audience. Let what is right for you drive your business and marketing decisions, not what is right for everybody in the world. Joe, you have a sub point, I think, that you wanted to add to that.
• 3:26
  Joe Rando: Well, yeah. I mean, first and foremost, I think it's never a good idea to create content without a strategy, whether that's blogs, podcasts, social media posts, because just you know, I mentioned before. I went number one on Google search for shopping in the future because I wrote a comedic article on our last company's blog about shopping in the twenty second century, and it was all foolishness. I was just having fun, and it was like the number one hit on Google for well over a year, but did nothing for our business. And so you can do all these things, work hard, but if it's not strategic to driving people to you that wanna buy from you, wanna do business with you, it's a waste of time.
• 4:15
  So you're right on there. The other thing that's changed in 2025 is that if you were creating content for Google to try to rank and search, it's always been tough for solopreneurs because, the big guys are out there cranking out, content with a staff. But it's gotten worse than ever for everybody because of zero click search. the AI search results that just give you the answer and you don't do any clicking. So create your content for the humans that you wanna serve,
• 4:48
  I mean, because you know, you can drive them to it using social media posts or other ways, but that's really what's gonna serve you better than trying to, just put, you know, keywords that people search on because it's probably not gonna buy you anything.
• 5:08
  Carly Ries: The one caveat I'm gonna have with that, Joe, is if you are a local business
• 5:12
  Joe Rando: Absolutely.
• 5:13
  Carly Ries: Still need to focus on local content because people if they're looking for restaurants in the area, they're still gonna need to find those search results. The Google listings, the address, all of that. So if you're a local business, still create for your audience, but keep those those best practices for local SEO in mind as well.
• 5:33
  Joe Rando: But the thing I said about competition. If you're local, the competition is so much smaller. If you've got a local business, you have a lot better chance. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. Definitely, definitely focus on showing up in Google if you are a local business.
• 5:50
  Carly Ries: Yep. But moral of the story, stop doing things because you think you should and start doing things because they work for your business and your audience. That's all I was saying.
• 5:59
  What's number two, Joe?
• 6:01
  Joe Rando: Number two is stop obsessing over passive income scams.
• 6:07
  Carly Ries: Doesn't that just sound so lovely to money without doing anything?
• 6:11
  Joe Rando: Yeah. You just, you know, create your course content or you crank out your app and, put it out there on on Product Hunt or Gumroad and the next thing you're sipping cocktails for, the rest of your life. Sounds good. Not gonna happen. Probably never did
• 6:29
  Carly Ries: which is what people think
• 6:32
  Joe Rando: Yeah. People win the lottery. People become rock stars, but that's more hope than a strategy.
• 6:40
  So, yeah, don't fall for that stuff. I mean, it's just the kind of thing that's gonna take your energy. You're gonna waste your time. Find the people that have good ideas. And you know, we talked a little bit about jumping on trends and things and not overdoing that, but there are things that are changing and there are people out there that can help you. I always come back, we always come back to Jay Schwedelson,
• 7:04
  Here's what's working in email this month. Because people are reacting to the email inbox and they get sick of seeing the same thing, so you gotta do something fresh to get their attention. So those are the kinds of trends you really do wanna look at. And so there are people out there that can help you understand those things and learn those things. I'm not talking about them.
• 7:22
  I'm talking about the person that says, hey, you know, go through my $2,300 program, and you'll put together a course or whatever, and then you'll just collect money, and you won't have to do anything.
• 7:34
  Carly Ries: Yeah. I wanna reiterate that we're saying avoid the scams and that get rich quick messaging. If you write a book and you're getting money from it, like that's passive income, but you have to write a book to get that. Like money is coming in later. If you create courses, great.
• 7:51
  That's income that you could be getting without necessarily working one on one with people and can be passive income. But you still have to do support. You still have to chat with people. You still have to set up the course. You can absolutely create passive income for yourself so that you're not doing one on one consulting or coaching or whatever.
• 8:08
  We're just talking about the scams and the get rich quick schemes. Like, we're not saying don't do passive income. Because if you can productize services, by all means, productize your services.
• 8:20
  Joe Rando: Absolutely.
• 8:21
  Carly Ries: So yeah. just more work goes into it, I think, than people think when they do that. Sorry. That was my clarification.
• 8:28
  Joe Rando: That's a good point though. Absolutely.
• 8:32
  Carly Ries: So yeah. Okay. let's see. Number three. Oh, stop comparing yourself to other people.
• 8:40
  Everybody is starting in a different place. Some people may be switching careers entirely and industries entirely and have to learn something new. Other people are just taking their existing skill set. let's say they work for a marketing agency and now they're going off on their own to marketing, they already have the skill set. People have started years before you, people have different backgrounds.
• 9:03
  Do not compare your first chapter to somebody's twentieth chapter. I just think it's so important to focus on what's important, focus on your audience. But also if you're gonna compare yourself to anybody, compare yourself to yourself. And maybe look back ninety days ago and say, where was I then and where am I now? And that's the kind of comparison you can have.
• 9:26
  Make sure that you are moving forward in your business, not that the Joe Rando next to you is moving forward. So that's me. I had to throw in the Rando.
• 9:40
  Joe Rando: Yeah. So I think that, in line with that is don't try to copy someone else either. If you are starting a business and somebody else is successful in something similar, I'm not saying don't steal good ideas. I think everybody should steal good ideas, but don't just copy somebody because they seem to be doing well.
• 9:58
  Because if you're not building the business that's true to you, you're probably not gonna do as well as they are if they built a business true to them. So, take the good ideas to find those things that resonate, but don't try to just copy and paste somebody else's business onto you. You'll probably be unhappy with the result.
• 10:18
  Carly Ries: Yep. I agree. Alright, Joe. So I think the next thing that's important is to stop managing every task yourself. I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say it, flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone.
• 10:29
  It's my favorite thing. But there's no reason to be doing everything by yourself from a few ways. Joe, I will talk about outsourcing. You have so many different options for contractors, freelancers, other people that you can collaborate with that aren't employees to help you get this stuff done. I'm a contractor for LifeStarr.
• 10:49
  I do work with Joe every day, but I am a contractor. And I mean, that's how we're running this company. I am not an employee of Joe's. So just know that you can have collaborators and other people helping you get things off the ground without hiring them. So definitely lean in to that.
• 11:13
  But Joe, AI and automation,
• 11:17
  Joe Rando: I mean, there are so many things that you can do now. Well, the automation tools have been there for a long time, and they're great. With AI, it's even better. I mean, the AI can either do things for you or make it easier for you to figure out how to implement the automation stuff. But, if you're sending out emails because somebody, clicked on or filled out a form on your website, that shouldn't be happening. You really should be automating that kind of stuff.
• 11:46
  And there are so many other things you could be automating. It depends on your business, obviously. The AI agents are coming into their own now where they'll actually go out and do things for you as opposed to just create content. So there's just a lot of ways that you can do less work and get more done than ever before. And if you're missing out on that, then you're really missing out.
• 12:09
  Carly Ries: Yep. Absolutely. Alright, Joe. Take us home. We have one more that we wanna talk about today.
• 12:13
  Joe Rando: Yeah. Which one is that? I'm lost on my list here.
• 12:17
  Carly Ries: Stop saying yes to every project or every client. The point of being a one person business owner in our eyes is to take back your life, take back control of your time. It doesn't mean you're not gonna necessarily work less than you did in corporate America, but you get to live life the way you want as a solopreneur. So do you want to say yes to nagging clients, to industries that you don't aren't passionate about, to projects that may pay a little bit but will stress you out and take time away from your family. You are in the driver's seat now.
• 12:50
  Start saying no. The power of no is huge.
• 12:54
  Joe Rando: I wanna double down on this because it is so important in any business. I mean, I've started startups with, not lots of, but, you know, a number of employees. And regardless, you need to focus on doing the things that you're good at and you can be efficient at. Somebody might come along and say, hey, I want you to do this.
• 13:15
  And it's not what you do. Well, that's going to be hard for you. It's gonna take your focus away. You're gonna be losing your rhythm. Even if it sounds interesting or fun, it still might not be a good idea for your business.
• 13:30
  And I have a saying, when you take on a special client, somebody that's different from all your other clients, special clients quickly become problem clients, even if they're good and reasonable people, because it's not what you're doing. So I just really wanna double down on this. If it's not in your core business, especially as a solopreneur, don't do it. You know, just say thanks for the offer, but I can't help you, and let them find somebody else.
• 13:59
  Carly Ries: Absolutely. Well, listeners, that is all we have for you today. Something that you should totally bring into 2026 unless you do it in 2025 is leave us a five star review. We would love that. We'd also love it if you would share this episode with a friend.
• 14:15
  Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, YouTube. It means the world to us. And we'll see you next week 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.
• 14:34
  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.