176. When to Hustle, When to Rest: The Solopreneur’s Guide to Longevity - A Sound Bite Episode

Feeling overwhelmed? Struggling with writer’s block? You’re not alone. In this short episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, Carly Ries and Joe Rando get real about those days when motivation is nowhere to be found. They dive into the power of stepping away, reconnecting with your “why,” and knowing when to push through versus when to pivot.

Plus, they share insights on burnout, mindset shifts, and the importance of having a solopreneur community to lean on. If you’ve ever wondered, “Should I keep going or call it quits?”—this episode is for you.

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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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
Feeling overwhelmed? Wondering if it's time to throw

(00:02):
in the towel or just take abreather? In this Soundbite
episode, we get real aboutburnout, self doubt, and knowing
when to push forward versus whento pivot. From personal stories
of tough times to actionableadvice on reconnecting with your
why, finding the right audience,and avoiding the emotional
roller coaster ofsolopreneurship, this is the pep
talk you didn't know you needed.So stay tuned.

(00:23):
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 Reese, and mycohost, Joe Rando, and I are
your guides to navigating thiscrazy but awesome journey as a
company of one. We take pride inbeing part of Lifestar, a

(00:45):
digital hub dedicated to allaspects of solopreneurship that
has empowered and educatedcountless solopreneurs looking
to build a business thatresonates with their life's
ambitions. We help people workto live, not live to work. And
if you're looking for a get richquick scheme, this is not the
show for you.
So if you're eager to gainvaluable insights from industry

(01:05):
experts on running a businessthe right way the first time
around or want to learn from themissteps of solopreneurs who
paved the way before you, thenstick around. We've got your
back because flying solo inbusiness doesn't mean you're
alone. Joe, we were just talkingoffline about having some
writer's block, just not havingthe mental energy for today, and

(01:28):
we have a lot going on rightnow. So what do you do when
you're just like, oh, screw it.I'm going outside.
How do you do?

Joe Rando (01:36):
I go outside. But, you know, I I don't know. I
mean, it's as you well know,I've been at this a long time.
My my my theme song, I think, isis what's it called? Thump
thumping tub thumping.

Carly Ries (01:52):
Tub thumper.

Joe Rando (01:53):
Tub thumping or tub

Carly Ries (01:55):
yeah. I did not

Joe Rando (01:57):
but I get up again.

Carly Ries (01:59):
Yeah.

Joe Rando (01:59):
And that's was my kind of theme song for most of
my entrepreneurial life. Andbut, you know, there are times
when you're down and, you know,I I guess one of the things I do
is I let myself have a littlebit of time like that. You know,
I don't get upset that I'm downbecause I think sometimes you

(02:21):
just need to feel that way for alittle while. But you don't
wanna just give up. Right?
You wanna give yourself somespace to be like, yeah. You
know, it it isn't feeling I'mnot feeling it right now. I
don't know if this is gonna workor whatever it is that's that's
bothering you. But, you know,it's important to, I think, to
reconnect with your why. Why didyou do this?
You know? And if the answer is,I don't know, then maybe you got

(02:43):
a problem. Right? But, usually,you have a good pretty good why,
you know, you did this. And youwanna remember that because, you
know, that's the kind of thingthat you can you know, when
things get tough and it getschallenging, you can forget that
you had a damn good reason whyyou did this.
So I I just I kinda try to goback to that. You know, one of
the things that we talked aboutbefore, and this is, you know,

(03:05):
kinda when do you give up? Whendo you when do you quit? When do
you, you know, close thebusiness, pivot, whatever? And
one of the things that I reallylike to think about is does
anybody love what I'm doing?
Right? And, you know, when Istarted, I cofounded an
enterprise software company. Andfrom 02/2004 until 02/2009, we

(03:27):
had two customers. They weregreat customers, but we couldn't
get any more. And there's a fewreasons for that.
But one thing that we knew wasthat those two customers loved
what we were doing. They lovedit. And, you know, so what was
clear to me is that is thatthere were gonna be other people
that would love it. You know?Maybe it wasn't time yet, but

(03:49):
other people were gonna love it.
So if you have a few people thatlove what you're doing, try to
find more of those people. But,know, it's a good sign. And if
nobody loves what you're doing,then you might wanna think about
giving up for real. But, youknow, that's that's my that's my
thoughts on it. What what aboutyou?

Carly Ries (04:05):
I think a couple of thing that things that influence
giving up are burnout. And it'snot necessarily that you don't
love your business or that youforgot your why. You're just
working too hard, and it'sturning you off to the business
that you originally started. Wehad one of our community members
experience that big time thisyear and ended up kinda taking,
what was it, a month off just toreset, regain clarity. And I

(04:29):
know that's a scary thing tosay, and not everybody has the
luxury of taking a month off totry to to figure that out.
But see if burnout is what'scausing it. It may not be
anything but that. You just needa weekend away from your laptop,
away from your business torecharge. I think another thing
that people get confused withgiving up versus not is just if

(04:50):
they're they're mixing up peoplenot responding to their business
versus not responding to themand they're taking things
personally. And so if peoplearen't buying from you as a
solopreneur, it's easy to belike, it's me.
They don't wanna buy from me.That might not be the case. It
might just be that you're atmarketing in the right place.
You're not selling the rightthing. It's so hard to not take

(05:13):
things personally and be on aroller coaster of it's me.
It's me. It's me. And insteadjust realize, no. It's just
where you're you're marketingthe product. We are what what
your position is in the marketand really separate yourself
emotionally from the businessbecause I think that's another
place where we see solopreneursbe like, can't do this anymore.

Joe Rando (05:31):
And you know, and so many times it's not that the
product is bad or the idea isbad, it's that they don't
understand that you need to beselling to pain points. Right?
It's like you need to be talkingabout the pain and so that
people can then look to you tosolve the pain. If they want to
talk about benefits or they wantto talk about, you know, what
they do and so a lot of timesthis really isn't the product,

(05:54):
it isn't them, but it is maybetheir sales skills, you know,
and their marketing skills thatneed some work. So that's
another thing is to kinda say,well, what's going on here?
Like you said, is it am Ioverworked? Am I burnt out? Am I
depressed because I'm notclosing deals? Well, let's let's
fix that. You know?
Let's dig in and fix it. And oneof the ways to help with that is
to find a community. You know,get a community of solopreneurs,

(06:16):
other people that have beenthrough what you're going
through that maybe have someinsights for you.

Carly Ries (06:20):
Yes. Get those cheerleaders. And you know what?
If you get those cheerleaders,if you cannot pinpoint why
things are working, if you donot have enough money in the
bank to live the life that youwant, there's no shame in in
hanging up your coat and sayingthis it was a good test run, but
just make sure you don't do aknee jerk reaction or have knee
jerk reaction before ending yourbusiness. Really think through

(06:44):
it.
Really take the time. Take astep back. Because a lot of
times it's not worth closingyour doors. It's just worth some
reflection.

Joe Rando (06:51):
Maybe a little bit of restrategizing.

Carly Ries (06:54):
Exactly. But we just thought we'd chime in. We we
have a lot going on. We feel theoverwhelm. I neither of us have
wanted to throw in the towel byany means.
But even just having those thosefeelings of, like, there's so
much going on, we we we canrelate to that. So we thought we

Joe Rando (07:09):
could just

Carly Ries (07:10):
time in here.

Joe Rando (07:11):
It was a good week for it too.

Carly Ries (07:13):
Good week for it. Exactly. Very timely. Yep. Well,
listeners, thank you so much fortuning in.
We would so appreciate that fivestory review. Please refer us to
our friends, spread the word,and subscribe on your favorite
podcast platform. And we willsee you next time on the
aspiring solopreneur. You may begoing solo in business, but that

(07:33):
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? AtLifestar, 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.lifestar.com. That's