February 20, 2025 • 13 mins
Ever wondered how LifeStarr operates behind the curtain?
In this episode, Carly and Joe peel back the layers, answering your burning questions about how they make money, work with contractors instead of employees, and navigate the challenges of running a business while keeping flexibility at the core.
Plus, they tease some BIG things coming soon—including an exciting way for solopreneurs to find the right people to work with.
Oh, and did we mention a book deal? 🎉
If you're a solopreneur (or thinking about becoming one), this is a must-listen. Tune in now!
Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, be sure to check out LifeStarr Intro!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carly Ries (00:00):
Ever wonder how we operate LifeStarr without a
traditional team? In thisepisode, we peel back the
curtain to reveal how westructure our business, manage
contractors, and keep everythingrunning smoothly without
breaking the solopreneur model.Plus, we dive into the
challenges and advantages ofworking with contractors, share
insights on making money assolopreneurs, and drop some huge
(00:20):
announcements, including a gamechanging resource for
solopreneurs and a major bookdeal. So be sure to tune in.
You're listening to the AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for
those just taking the bold stepor even just thinking about
taking that step into the worldof solo entrepreneurship.
My name is Carly Ries, and mycohost Joe Rando and I are your
(00:41):
guides to navigating this crazybut awesome journey as a company
of one. We take pride in beingpart of LifeStarr, a digital hub
dedicated to all aspects ofsolopreneurship that has
empowered and educated countlesssolopreneurs looking to build a
business that resonates withtheir life's ambitions. We help
people work to live, not live towork. And if you're looking for
(01:03):
a get rich quick scheme, this isnot the show for you. So if
you're eager to gain valuableinsights from industry experts
on running a business the rightway the first time around, or
want to learn from the misstepsof solopreneurs who've paved the
way before you, then stickaround.
We've got your back becauseflying solo in business doesn't
mean you're alone. So, Joe, wehave so much going on at
(01:26):
LifeStarr right now. I feel likewe're moving a mile a minute,
and I thought it'd be fun totake a step back. A lot of
people do this around the newyear. We did not.
But to kinda peel back thecurtain on what happens in
LifeStarr, we've gotten a lot ofquestions on how the business
runs, how we're set up, how wemake money, our wins, our all
that stuff. And so I figure wecan address some of those
(01:49):
questions today. So one of thequestions we get is, well, you
guys are all working, on thisLifeStarr product, LifeStarr
Central, LifeStarr Intro, allthese things. but your a team.
so isn't that kind of, againstwhat you talk about when it
comes to solopreneurship? Towhich we say, Joe, do you wanna
(02:11):
answer that?
Joe Rando (02:12):
I say nay nay. It's what we really recommend finding
people to work with. Carly, afractional, CMO. You are your
own boss. You make your ownschedule, and you basically,
(02:33):
charge us by the hour for whatyou do.
And I have other people likeGeorge B Thomas with the same
kind of relationship. And, Ilease employees from other
companies when I need them. Soit's really a function of
saying, do have employees?Because, it seems like it's not
(02:53):
really a big distinction,contractor and employee, but,
really, it is. Because numberone, when you have an employee,
you have a lot ofresponsibilities for that
employee.
There are a lot of governmentregulations about, how you treat
them what you give them. Youhave to give them the
opportunity to get healthinsurance typically and lots of
other things. And when you havea contractor, that doesn't fall
(03:17):
on you. That falls on thecontractor to themselves. If you
have a contractor, you can'ttell them I want you working
from 9AM to 5PM.
Because if you do that, they canthen say, well, no, I was
employee. They can basically sueyou and I've seen this happen,
sue you and and win back some ofthe money they paid because they
were paying self employment tax.So you can really lose big time
(03:39):
if you try to use contractorsand treat them like employees.
So it's a distinction and itchanges how you run the
business. It changes. in someways that make it easier.
In some ways, it makes itharder. But it's just a
distinction that needs to berespected.
Carly Ries (03:52):
And in terms of peeling back the curtain and,
Joe, you practice what youpreach. You are so so good about
respecting people as contractorsbecause I have fallen into a
situation before where it wasn'tthe case. But we wanted to prove
that you can run a business likethis, and we're all independent.
And so I wanted to clear upclarify that, but some of the
(04:13):
downsides with that that I feellike we should talk about like,
we have a huge launch coming upsoon, that we'll cheese very
shortly, but we've had vacationsfor contractors to work with.
I've had things come up thatwe've had to work with. can't
say you need to be in the officeby 08:30 blah blah and all that.
(04:36):
There are some downsides that Iwould say Businesses with
employees have from a controlstandpoint. Would you agree with
that?
Joe Rando (04:43):
You're saying downsides that companies have
Carly Ries (04:46):
Running a business like this. Like, we would have
loved to launch, everythingmaybe a little bit earlier,
maybe not. But we have to dealwith other people's schedules
because you can't control ourschedules. So things get pushed
out.
Joe Rando (04:58):
Right. Yeah. So, I mean, are at somewhat of a
disadvantage in that respect.Yeah. You don't have as much
control. just as an example, afew years ago, we've been
working together for a whilenow. You had a baby, and you're
like, well, I'm taking thisamount of time off. There was no
company policy about about what,maternity leave looked like. And
(05:18):
there was no company policyabout how much you get paid on
maternity leave.
It was, a different kind ofrelationship, and I wasn't gonna
sit here and tell you, oh, no, Ineed you back in three weeks.
It's like you made your rules.Which is cool. But it's, again,
from the perspective of runninga business, it can be more
challenging, less predictablebecause, one person says, I need
(05:42):
to take two weeks off orsomething.
Another one says, I need a monthand a half, and you wind up, not
really being able to predictexactly how things are gonna
affect you. So I've been on bothsides of it. I've had the
company with employees and, thecompany policies and the
employee handbook and all thatstuff. I mean, they're both
great. They're both great, andthey can both be really
(06:02):
challenging.
But, solopreneurship is anexciting way to go because of
that freedom that it gives youto design the business around
your life instead of kind ofdesigning the business around
the business, you know, and whatit needs.
Carly Ries (06:18):
so all this to say, if you are trying to plan a
business, we cannot stressenough or run a business to work
with others. Like, there's noharm in that. You'll have a few
downsides, but in the long run,it all works out for the best.
Joe Rando (06:32):
And just a teaser, we're building very soon, you're
listening to this earlyFebruary, which you probably
aren't, by the time it getsproduced. But, it will be able
to find those other people towork with really easily with
with LifeStarr. So kind of oneof the things we've been doing.
So go ahead. And next question.
Carly Ries (06:54):
Tune in to future episodes to see what that is.
So, another question we get, andthis goes hand in hand with the
whole contractor thing too, ishow do you get paid? How is
LifeStarr currently makingmoney?
Joe Rando (07:07):
Oh, I knew there was something I forgot. Okay. Well,
let me give a little backstory.So I started as a solopreneur
developing, retail real estateto basically creating shopping
centers. And the process therewas to find land and then to get
(07:28):
permits to put a shopping centeron that particular piece of land
and then find tenants orretailers that wanted to be on
that piece of land in thatshopping center.
And one of the reallyinteresting things was I went
through that process. It waslong and a challenging thing to
do. And then we startedconstruction, and I remember
thinking nothing's happening.Right? You said there are pieces
(07:52):
of equipment moving around, andday after day, there was nothing
but dirt.
And I said, well, this is weird.And then all of a sudden, boom,
everything went up. And itseemed like it very quickly went
from being dirt, a sandlot typeof thing to being, a shopping
center. And what I took fromthat is that you have to get the
(08:15):
foundations in place. If youdon't get the foundations for
the buildings, they collapse.
If you don't get the foundationsbuilt for the parking lots, you
get sinkholes. You gotta get thedrainage system in. You gotta do
all this stuff that you don'treally see, but you benefit from
in the end. And with LifeStarr,it's been a combination of
(08:36):
building out the foundation. Imean, hundreds 60 plus episodes
of this podcast, blogs, many,many events and talking to
experts and bringing peopletogether and listening to
solopreneurs to really, reallyunderstand what's needed.
Ability to have that foundationto say, this is what we need to
(08:58):
build. Now I will say there wasalso a false start. I don't know
what's a false start, butdetour. We were originally
building an app for taskmanagement, and we pivoted over
to this, building basically whatwe call a Lifestarr Central,
which is a place for people tocome together. And there's a
free tier.
So, we're not making money thereeither, but we have a few paid
(09:20):
tiers. The hope is that thepeople will see the value in the
free tier, but also some ofthem, not all, but some of them
will see the value in that paidtier and the additional things
that you get and then want tostep up and pay. And that's to
me, a really great model becauseyou can figure out how to bring
(09:41):
enough value for the rightprice, then you should have a
successful business. And we havebeen doing that and we think
we've at least got thebeginnings of that ready to go
in the next months.
Carly Ries (09:54):
Yeah. Woo. Joe, just looking back this year, we've
had I would say our biggest winis, really Developing
relationships with that audiencethat you're talking about that
foundational audience. I feellike we really know Who our
people are through and throughand know how to address them.
I feel like our messaging hasbeen buttoned up I mean like you
(10:17):
said we've gone up and down,left and right to figure it out,
and now it's clear, and you needto do some trial and error for
that. We know what we'repitching. We know who we're
selling to. And it's just kindof like, a nice weight. Like not
a weight lifted off ourshoulders because we still have
some pretty heavy lifting to do,but just the clarity
Joe Rando (10:40):
You feel like you see the path forward.
Carly Ries (10:41):
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
So I just wanted to have thisepisode to peel the curtain
back, like I said earlier, kindalet you know, we practiced what
we preach. We know it's not alinear journey. There are ups
and downs. And just let you knowthat we're all in this together.
Joe Rando (10:57):
Well, there's one other thing we should mention
about kind of figuring out thepath, for the solopreneurs, that
we think are really doing it forthe right reason. And that is
that we decided, you and Isigned a deal with Wiley to
write Solopreneur Business forDummies, which I just today I
don't know if you saw it. Gotthe final cover.
Carly Ries (11:19):
Yes.
Joe Rando (11:20):
so exciting. that on LinkedIn. That was my LinkedIn
post for today was the cover. Sothat's exciting stuff.
But, process of figuring thatout wasn't gonna happen
overnight because, you know,there are a lot of people out
there, the world is changing,and you really need to figure
out how to serve your customers,the people you wanna serve. And,
(11:44):
we took longer than a typicalsolopreneur would have been. I
had sold a business, I had sometime to figure it out, and I'm
trying to do something a littlebigger than a typical
solopreneur. And I'll be honest,Carly, I don't know that
LifeStarr is gonna be asolopreneur business forever. I
hope that if we get enoughpeople that we're helping that I
will need to bring on employeesbecause that's the only way.
(12:05):
If there are, thousands ofpeople that we're helping, I'm
probably not gonna do that fromjust, my spare bedroom working
with contractors. path that somesolopreneurs take, but, driving
force is figuring out how tohelp people build businesses
that serve their lives, and I'lltake any twist or turn it takes
to get there.
Carly Ries (12:25):
Love it. Well, like Joe said, we have a book coming
out, later this year.
Joe Rando (12:32):
September.
September.
Carly Ries (12:33):
We'll have links to presales soon.
We'll have links to our waitlist for LifeStarr Central that
we've been talking about. So besure to continue tuning into
this podcast, And we just soappreciate you tuning in today.
As always, leave that five starreview, subscribe on your
favorite platform, and we willsee you next time on the
Aspiring Solopreneur. You may begoing solo in business, but that
(12:55):
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go.
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.Be sure to join in on the
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com.
Ever wonder how we operate LifeStarr without a
traditional team? In thisepisode, we peel back the
curtain to reveal how westructure our business, manage
contractors, and keep everythingrunning smoothly without
breaking the solopreneur model.Plus, we dive into the
challenges and advantages ofworking with contractors, share
insights on making money assolopreneurs, and drop some huge
(00:20):
announcements, including a gamechanging resource for
solopreneurs and a major bookdeal. So be sure to tune in.
You're listening to the AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for
those just taking the bold stepor even just thinking about
taking that step into the worldof solo entrepreneurship.
My name is Carly Ries, and mycohost Joe Rando and I are your
(00:41):
guides to navigating this crazybut awesome journey as a company
of one. We take pride in beingpart of LifeStarr, a digital hub
dedicated to all aspects ofsolopreneurship that has
empowered and educated countlesssolopreneurs looking to build a
business that resonates withtheir life's ambitions. We help
people work to live, not live towork. And if you're looking for
(01:03):
a get rich quick scheme, this isnot the show for you. So if
you're eager to gain valuableinsights from industry experts
on running a business the rightway the first time around, or
want to learn from the misstepsof solopreneurs who've paved the
way before you, then stickaround.
We've got your back becauseflying solo in business doesn't
mean you're alone. So, Joe, wehave so much going on at
(01:26):
LifeStarr right now. I feel likewe're moving a mile a minute,
and I thought it'd be fun totake a step back. A lot of
people do this around the newyear. We did not.
But to kinda peel back thecurtain on what happens in
LifeStarr, we've gotten a lot ofquestions on how the business
runs, how we're set up, how wemake money, our wins, our all
that stuff. And so I figure wecan address some of those
(01:49):
questions today. So one of thequestions we get is, well, you
guys are all working, on thisLifeStarr product, LifeStarr
Central, LifeStarr Intro, allthese things. but your a team.
so isn't that kind of, againstwhat you talk about when it
comes to solopreneurship? Towhich we say, Joe, do you wanna
(02:11):
answer that?
Joe Rando (02:12):
I say nay nay. It's what we really recommend finding
people to work with. Carly, afractional, CMO. You are your
own boss. You make your ownschedule, and you basically,
(02:33):
charge us by the hour for whatyou do.
And I have other people likeGeorge B Thomas with the same
kind of relationship. And, Ilease employees from other
companies when I need them. Soit's really a function of
saying, do have employees?Because, it seems like it's not
(02:53):
really a big distinction,contractor and employee, but,
really, it is. Because numberone, when you have an employee,
you have a lot ofresponsibilities for that
employee.
There are a lot of governmentregulations about, how you treat
them what you give them. Youhave to give them the
opportunity to get healthinsurance typically and lots of
other things. And when you havea contractor, that doesn't fall
(03:17):
on you. That falls on thecontractor to themselves. If you
have a contractor, you can'ttell them I want you working
from 9AM to 5PM.
Because if you do that, they canthen say, well, no, I was
employee. They can basically sueyou and I've seen this happen,
sue you and and win back some ofthe money they paid because they
were paying self employment tax.So you can really lose big time
(03:39):
if you try to use contractorsand treat them like employees.
So it's a distinction and itchanges how you run the
business. It changes. in someways that make it easier.
In some ways, it makes itharder. But it's just a
distinction that needs to berespected.
Carly Ries (03:52):
And in terms of peeling back the curtain and,
Joe, you practice what youpreach. You are so so good about
respecting people as contractorsbecause I have fallen into a
situation before where it wasn'tthe case. But we wanted to prove
that you can run a business likethis, and we're all independent.
And so I wanted to clear upclarify that, but some of the
(04:13):
downsides with that that I feellike we should talk about like,
we have a huge launch coming upsoon, that we'll cheese very
shortly, but we've had vacationsfor contractors to work with.
I've had things come up thatwe've had to work with. can't
say you need to be in the officeby 08:30 blah blah and all that.
(04:36):
There are some downsides that Iwould say Businesses with
employees have from a controlstandpoint. Would you agree with
that?
Joe Rando (04:43):
You're saying downsides that companies have
Carly Ries (04:46):
Running a business like this. Like, we would have
loved to launch, everythingmaybe a little bit earlier,
maybe not. But we have to dealwith other people's schedules
because you can't control ourschedules. So things get pushed
out.
Joe Rando (04:58):
Right. Yeah. So, I mean, are at somewhat of a
disadvantage in that respect.Yeah. You don't have as much
control. just as an example, afew years ago, we've been
working together for a whilenow. You had a baby, and you're
like, well, I'm taking thisamount of time off. There was no
company policy about about what,maternity leave looked like. And
(05:18):
there was no company policyabout how much you get paid on
maternity leave.
It was, a different kind ofrelationship, and I wasn't gonna
sit here and tell you, oh, no, Ineed you back in three weeks.
It's like you made your rules.Which is cool. But it's, again,
from the perspective of runninga business, it can be more
challenging, less predictablebecause, one person says, I need
(05:42):
to take two weeks off orsomething.
Another one says, I need a monthand a half, and you wind up, not
really being able to predictexactly how things are gonna
affect you. So I've been on bothsides of it. I've had the
company with employees and, thecompany policies and the
employee handbook and all thatstuff. I mean, they're both
great. They're both great, andthey can both be really
(06:02):
challenging.
But, solopreneurship is anexciting way to go because of
that freedom that it gives youto design the business around
your life instead of kind ofdesigning the business around
the business, you know, and whatit needs.
Carly Ries (06:18):
so all this to say, if you are trying to plan a
business, we cannot stressenough or run a business to work
with others. Like, there's noharm in that. You'll have a few
downsides, but in the long run,it all works out for the best.
Joe Rando (06:32):
And just a teaser, we're building very soon, you're
listening to this earlyFebruary, which you probably
aren't, by the time it getsproduced. But, it will be able
to find those other people towork with really easily with
with LifeStarr. So kind of oneof the things we've been doing.
So go ahead. And next question.
Carly Ries (06:54):
Tune in to future episodes to see what that is.
So, another question we get, andthis goes hand in hand with the
whole contractor thing too, ishow do you get paid? How is
LifeStarr currently makingmoney?
Joe Rando (07:07):
Oh, I knew there was something I forgot. Okay. Well,
let me give a little backstory.So I started as a solopreneur
developing, retail real estateto basically creating shopping
centers. And the process therewas to find land and then to get
(07:28):
permits to put a shopping centeron that particular piece of land
and then find tenants orretailers that wanted to be on
that piece of land in thatshopping center.
And one of the reallyinteresting things was I went
through that process. It waslong and a challenging thing to
do. And then we startedconstruction, and I remember
thinking nothing's happening.Right? You said there are pieces
(07:52):
of equipment moving around, andday after day, there was nothing
but dirt.
And I said, well, this is weird.And then all of a sudden, boom,
everything went up. And itseemed like it very quickly went
from being dirt, a sandlot typeof thing to being, a shopping
center. And what I took fromthat is that you have to get the
(08:15):
foundations in place. If youdon't get the foundations for
the buildings, they collapse.
If you don't get the foundationsbuilt for the parking lots, you
get sinkholes. You gotta get thedrainage system in. You gotta do
all this stuff that you don'treally see, but you benefit from
in the end. And with LifeStarr,it's been a combination of
(08:36):
building out the foundation. Imean, hundreds 60 plus episodes
of this podcast, blogs, many,many events and talking to
experts and bringing peopletogether and listening to
solopreneurs to really, reallyunderstand what's needed.
Ability to have that foundationto say, this is what we need to
(08:58):
build. Now I will say there wasalso a false start. I don't know
what's a false start, butdetour. We were originally
building an app for taskmanagement, and we pivoted over
to this, building basically whatwe call a Lifestarr Central,
which is a place for people tocome together. And there's a
free tier.
So, we're not making money thereeither, but we have a few paid
(09:20):
tiers. The hope is that thepeople will see the value in the
free tier, but also some ofthem, not all, but some of them
will see the value in that paidtier and the additional things
that you get and then want tostep up and pay. And that's to
me, a really great model becauseyou can figure out how to bring
(09:41):
enough value for the rightprice, then you should have a
successful business. And we havebeen doing that and we think
we've at least got thebeginnings of that ready to go
in the next months.
Carly Ries (09:54):
Yeah. Woo. Joe, just looking back this year, we've
had I would say our biggest winis, really Developing
relationships with that audiencethat you're talking about that
foundational audience. I feellike we really know Who our
people are through and throughand know how to address them.
I feel like our messaging hasbeen buttoned up I mean like you
(10:17):
said we've gone up and down,left and right to figure it out,
and now it's clear, and you needto do some trial and error for
that. We know what we'repitching. We know who we're
selling to. And it's just kindof like, a nice weight. Like not
a weight lifted off ourshoulders because we still have
some pretty heavy lifting to do,but just the clarity
Joe Rando (10:40):
You feel like you see the path forward.
Carly Ries (10:41):
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
So I just wanted to have thisepisode to peel the curtain
back, like I said earlier, kindalet you know, we practiced what
we preach. We know it's not alinear journey. There are ups
and downs. And just let you knowthat we're all in this together.
Joe Rando (10:57):
Well, there's one other thing we should mention
about kind of figuring out thepath, for the solopreneurs, that
we think are really doing it forthe right reason. And that is
that we decided, you and Isigned a deal with Wiley to
write Solopreneur Business forDummies, which I just today I
don't know if you saw it. Gotthe final cover.
Carly Ries (11:19):
Yes.
Joe Rando (11:20):
so exciting. that on LinkedIn. That was my LinkedIn
post for today was the cover. Sothat's exciting stuff.
But, process of figuring thatout wasn't gonna happen
overnight because, you know,there are a lot of people out
there, the world is changing,and you really need to figure
out how to serve your customers,the people you wanna serve. And,
(11:44):
we took longer than a typicalsolopreneur would have been. I
had sold a business, I had sometime to figure it out, and I'm
trying to do something a littlebigger than a typical
solopreneur. And I'll be honest,Carly, I don't know that
LifeStarr is gonna be asolopreneur business forever. I
hope that if we get enoughpeople that we're helping that I
will need to bring on employeesbecause that's the only way.
(12:05):
If there are, thousands ofpeople that we're helping, I'm
probably not gonna do that fromjust, my spare bedroom working
with contractors. path that somesolopreneurs take, but, driving
force is figuring out how tohelp people build businesses
that serve their lives, and I'lltake any twist or turn it takes
to get there.
Carly Ries (12:25):
Love it. Well, like Joe said, we have a book coming
out, later this year.
Joe Rando (12:32):
September.
September.
Carly Ries (12:33):
We'll have links to presales soon.
We'll have links to our waitlist for LifeStarr Central that
we've been talking about. So besure to continue tuning into
this podcast, And we just soappreciate you tuning in today.
As always, leave that five starreview, subscribe on your
favorite platform, and we willsee you next time on the
Aspiring Solopreneur. You may begoing solo in business, but that
(12:55):
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go.
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.Be sure to join in on the
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com.
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com