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Do We Practice What We Preach? A Solopreneur Reality Check · The Life-First Solopreneur

• 0:00
  Carly Ries: Ever been asked if you actually practice what you preach? Well, someone in our community asked us exactly that recently. And so today, Joe and I are opening up about how we each run our own life first businesses. And spoiler alert, they look nothing alike. You'll hear how Joe protects dinner with his wife every single night and still had time to cycle through Europe and chase waterfalls in Iceland this year while growing a business.
• 0:21
  And you'll also hear why I set my alarm for an hour most people would call unreasonable just so I can be fully present when my kids get home from school. And we'll tackle a fun question along the way. And what happens if AI works a little too well? All these things are covered, so let's dive in. You're listening to the Life First Solopreneur, the podcast for those in pursuit of a life first business.
• 0:41
  I'm Carly Ries, and my cohost Joe Rando and I spend every episode with solopreneurs who are proving there's a better way to run a one person business and experts who are helping make it happen. We like to say life first, then business. So let's get right to it. Okay. So, Joe, as of now, the our whole release, our whole launch has happened, which is crazy.
• 1:08
  And we talked about it in last week's episode. Hopefully, of you listeners were at our launch this past Tuesday, which is two days ago. But we preach life first businesses. It's funny because I feel like we talk about it so much, but somebody the other day in the community was like, well do you practice what you preach? Like, how do you do a life first business?
• 1:28
  And I was like, oh, hold my... I don't wanna say beer , Hold my avocado. I saw a comedian say that once. Hold my avocado. Because yes, we absolutely practice our own. I mean, the values of the company are really our values. I don't think It was really a stretch. It was kinda like, what do we prioritize?
• 1:51
  And then we put it in the company. So Joe, do you want to go first? Do you want me to go first? I just thought we'd share how we each approach our own life first businesses.
• 2:01
  Joe Rando: Yeah. I don't mind going first. I do want to make a point that I did not start off doing this defining The life I wanted to live as consciously as I suggest doing it to other people because I developed that concept in doing this.
• 2:19
  it wasn't one of those things where I did it the way I would recommend doing it. But I did definitely start out with a strong feeling that I wanted my life to be a certain way, and I didn't want the business to get in the way of that. So for me, I guess, what I'm saying is I was very clear on where I wasn't gonna go with anything that I was doing. And so, I like working. I thrive in work. But when I've decided that work has to end at a certain time every workday and that weekends are for other stuff. it's as simple as that and also that I wanna like the work I'm doing. I don't have a complicated life first business. I have a pretty simple one, which is I'm gonna do the work I love to do, which is this.
• 3:11
  And I am going to be at the dinner table with my wife every night. And I am not gonna be working weekends, typically. And also, that I can just take off if I need to. So I've, spent a good chunk of August in The Netherlands and Belgium on a bicycle, and I spent very long weekend in October with my wife in Iceland looking at volcanoes and waterfulls and stuff. I'm not a complicated person, and, those are the things that are my life first business.
• 3:49
  Carly Ries: Well, I'm so glad you said you thrive and work. Because I think a common misconception is when we say life first, that doesn't mean you don't work. Some people, the life part, It's designing the business so that your life is in mind. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're not working, it shouldn't mean you're not working. Unless you have some great tools and automations and processes in place, which we're all for as well.
• 4:13
  Joe Rando: I just read an article today or I've read the beginning of the article, plan to finish it. But One of the people that was warning about AI destroying us, you know, wiping us out, is now worried. What if it works really well?
• 4:26
  We wind up in a situation where we have this, just utopia of not having to do anything, and what's that gonna do to humans? And it would destroy me. I would not fare well if I didn't have stuff to do. Now if you told me I had to do bookkeeping eight hours a day, five days a week, I would definitely rather take my chances with the utopia.
• 4:48
  But to do what I'm doing, I love this. I like doing this every day. And I don't mind if sometimes I start at seven and my wife is the chef. She's amazing. And she'll call at 06:30. I'm almost twelve hours into a day, but I'm happy. That's great. And other days, it's a lot shorter because of other stuff.
• 5:11
  But really, what I'm saying is it's what's important to you that makes your life good. And if you want to sit in a boat fishing six hours a day and work two, and you could find a way to make your business do that, that's your idea.
• 5:28
  Carly Ries: Yeah. I think it's funny. you said if I was doing bookkeeping or accounting, I'd take Utopia, and, by the time this is released, it'll be like the extension deadline. I bet a lot of CPAs are thinking the same thing.
• 5:41
  Well, it's funny because Joe, you and I actually, we work very well together, but we do set our businesses up completely different from a schedule standpoint. So you have the hard stop for dinner with your wife. You're also a wonderful grandfather. And if your granddaughter's in the house, like all bets are off and she takes priority. For sure.
• 6:02
  Which is great. And on that note, I have young ones in the house. And one of them isn't even in full day of school yet. One of them is. So my days are really weird because one of the things, that's so important to me is that I'm the one there to pick them up, to be at their activities, to cheer them on.
• 6:20
  I told you in a meeting earlier, I was like, I can't make it to this part of this meeting because I'm gonna be cheering my daughter on getting a medal. it's just very important to me that I am present. However, I'm also like you, where I like getting stuff done. I like being productive. I love this company. I want to do well. So what I do is on Thursdays, I look at the week ahead and I plan out my workouts, my childcare. I look at the meeting, and childcare meeting my parents.
• 6:54
  Thank you, mom and dad. And then I look at our meetings that we already have on the calendar, because usually we know more than a week in advance what's coming. And I fill all those in. Then from there, I put in my blocks of work.
• 7:10
  So I know when I'm getting the workout. Like, I do not touch my computer from 03:30 to eight any day because I want be like present with my family. Unless they have their own activities. And if they're at activities, then I'll work during those activities obviously.
• 7:27
  But because of that, I get up really early. I'm that weird 04:30, five AMer, but then those hours, the 03:30 to 05:30, when most people that spend working, I front end it at the beginning of the day. so it's kind of moving pieces based off of the workout, which is a priority of mine, the family, which is obviously a priority of mine. And then if I have to work From 08:30 to 10:30 at night because there was something going on during the day, I don't mind shifting my hours to make them work.
• 7:59
  I don't mind even working on the weekends because those are the pockets that make the most sense for me to be working. So I think the thing that people need to try to keep in mind is there's no one size fits all. But the commonality across all of this is you need to have a design. Like you need to at least have a plan. The plan can pivot, that's fine.
• 8:21
  But go in with intention of how you want to run your business.
• 8:25
  Joe Rando: Yeah. And as you saw in my example, it doesn't have to be complicated. You know, mine's pretty simple. I'll start as early as I can start. I'll work till dinnertime, unless there's a reason not to, like, my granddaughter comes over or there's something else going on that needs to be dealt with or should be enjoyed.
• 8:47
  And then, you know, I try to make the weekends sacrosanct, for not just all fun stuff. Obviously, there is house stuff to do and bills to pay and things to do like that. But It's very simple for me.
• 9:01
  And I said the work part is the one that I know very well now what kinds of things I thrive doing, what kinds of things suck my soul. But that's it. And that's all there is to it.
• 9:14
  Carly Ries: Yeah. And the other thing I want to point out is that even though we work at different times, like all that stuff, we get our work done. I think that's another big thing, and why it's so important to work with collaborators too, or with clients, because the work gets done. It's just a matter of when. Like, when ahead of the deadline it gets done. But I mean, We have a team of contractors. We're all pretty good about holding each other accountable and hitting the deadlines. I mean, you are the opposite of a micromanager.
• 9:46
  Like people just kinda know what they need to do, and then we do it. So again, it's not, oh, I'll work when I wanna work. It's like, no. We still have deadlines. We still have things that have to get posted. This episode will go out at 5AM on Thursday. But it's up to the person to figure out when that gets done. I think that's the other thing. It doesn't mean you can slack off and just be like, oh, I just work whenever.
• 10:09
  Like, you still have to do the work, show up for your clients, show up for the contractors or collaborators. And I think that's a big part. then of course, aside from all of this, we set up our own systems and processes, whether it be through automation, AI, whatever, that help us get that done. And we use the LifeStarr app, which is now actually available to everybody. So you guys, just to wrap this up, go over to LifeStarr intro.
• 10:36
  You can see everything that we offer from free courses, videos, community, and we have the app now, which is fantastic. We use it to coordinate everything, and it does Truly help us live a life, create a life first business and run it. Joe, do you want to add anything there?
• 10:53
  Joe Rando: I just want to make one other point about building a life first business. And it's something I've been saying for many, many, many years, Even as an employer when I had employee based businesses, but as a solopreneur as well. And it just applies to employees or to contractors and consultants and anything else. Hire people smarter than you.
• 11:13
  You said I'm not a micromanager because you know what? If I micromanaged you, you would do a worse job because you're smarter than me at what you do. And I remember I told that to a friend of mine who was starting a business way back, and he sold it for a lot of money. And he said, the thing you told me at the beginning of Hiring people smarter than me was what made all the difference.
• 11:34
  And so You know, when you go out and hire a contractor, you should be the dumb person in the room when you're talking to them about what they do. And that's important. That way, you don't have to micromanage because it's just making things worse.
• 11:49
  Carly Ries: Yeah. And it's annoying on both sides. So just don't do it. But listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. Again, go over to lifestarr intro.
• 12:00
  Oh my gosh. We have so many changes that have been made within the past week. It's all been released, it's insane. So please go check it out. Share this episode with a friend, especially one that you think can benefit from learning how to do a life first business, or at least hear a story of how people do it.
• 12:17
  Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, including YouTube. And you guys, that five star review would be just awesome to us. It really does help us spread the word to other life first solopreneurs. So we'd so appreciate it. And we'll see you next time on the life first solopreneur.
• 12:34
  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? 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.