🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. A few days ago I recorded a podcast with my old colleague and friend Amena. We ended up talking about side quests. If you've ever played a video game, you'll know exactly what I mean. You're heading somewhere. You've got a goal, a destination, something you're trying to build. Then a door lights up somewhere off to the side. You weren't planning to go through it. But it looks interesting. Before you know it, you've wandered off the main path...
24 days ago • 4 min read
🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. Last week, I made a fairly big change. I stripped almost everything about The Solo Sauce out of my LinkedIn profile. The headline changed, the about section changed and pretty much everything now points back to The Magic Sauce. Which is slightly strange when you consider that you’re reading this on The Solo Sauce newsletter. So let me explain. I finally accepted something I’ve probably known for a while. I’m not running one business; I’m...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Most people are too polished to be remembered. 🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. In a world full of noise and sameness, standing out matters. And before somebody interprets that as “just be louder,” that’s not really what I mean. I know a lot of smart people, especially more introverted people, who instantly recoil when they hear words like personal branding or standing out because they associate it with being theatrical, gimmicky or becoming some kind of dancing LinkedIn...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. I spent a good chunk of last week tweaking my business (and content) strategy. To be fair, I do that quite often. I know where I want to be in a few years, but the path there changes, so it needs adjusting. You learn what resonates, what falls flat, what creates conversations and what just disappears into the void. So I keep coming back to it, tweaking things, refining ideas, trying to stay honest about what’s actually working and what...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. Most independents I know are struggling a bit right now. Not always publicly, of course. Online everybody still seems to be absolutely flying. Every founder is apparently scaling effortlessly. Every second post starts with somebody announcing they just closed a five-figure deal, checked the moolah rolling into their Stripe account, or helped their clients generate 17 million dollars through some framework you can buy for a limited time at a...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. Most people create in isolation. They sit behind a laptop, creating stuff based on the assumption that they know what their audience needs, what they’re struggling with, and what will be useful to them. Sometimes they’re right. Often, they’re guessing. And here’s the problem with that. If you look at the same materials, on the same platforms, from the same people as everyone else, you’ll probably end up with the same conclusions, the same...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. Last week, I talked about how you (probably) don't need a massive audience size. If even a small percentage of people buy what you offer, you can work out pretty quickly how many people you actually need. And in most cases, it’s not that many. So if that’s the case, what do you then need? You need to be sharp. Btw, if you are new here, you can browse all past Solo Sauce newsletters right here. Explore the archive Most people start too broad....
2 months ago • 3 min read
🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. Most people think they need a big audience to make their business work. Thousands of followers. Tens of thousands of views. Maybe even millions. Social media has made that look like the goal. And I get it. When you constantly see people with huge numbers raking it in (at least, that's what they say), it’s easy to think that’s what success looks like. I’ve thought that too. But here’s a question worth asking: Have you ever worked out how many...
2 months ago • 3 min read
🎧 Listen to the podcast version of this email here. Last week, I talked about the importance of building your own email list. You can read that again HERE. Cause when you build everything on borrowed land, it can be taken away in a heartbeat. Let’s say you’ve reached out to a handful of people. Maybe 10. Maybe 30. Maybe more. Now what? What do you actually send? Most people think they need to be the expert. That they need to have all the answers and say something smart every time they send...
3 months ago • 3 min read