June 17, 2025 • 36 mins
The solopreneur economy is booming, but what’s really driving it, and how do you stand out when your competition spans the globe? In this episode, digital media expert Naresh Vissa joins us to break down the rise of solopreneurship, why getting fired might be the best thing that ever happens to your career, and how he built a high-quality, low-cost business that thrives on referrals.
Plus, we unpack the pricing trap many new solopreneurs fall into, the power of side hustles, and why Thomas Jefferson might just be your ultimate entrepreneurial role model. If you're navigating the solo business life (or thinking about it), this one’s a must-listen.
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
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Carly Ries (00:00):
What do global connectivity, getting fired, and
(00:03):
standing out in a sea offreelancers have in common?
They're all part of the modernsolopreneur's journey, at least
according to digital mediaexpert Naresh Vissa. In this
episode, we dive into howtoday's freelance economy was
built, why getting fired mightbe the best thing that's ever
happened to your business, andwhat solopreneurs can do to rise
above the noise in a globalmarketplace. So whether you're
(00:24):
pricing your services, preppingto go full time, or rethinking
your sales approach, thisepisode is full of real talk and
actionable advice. You'relistening to the Aspiring
Solopreneur, the podcast forthose just taking the bold step
or even just thinking abouttaking that step into the world
of solo entrepreneurship.
My name is Carly Ries and mycohost Joe Rando and I are your
(00:48):
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
(01:09):
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 paved the
way before you, then stickaround.
We've got your back becauseflying solo in business doesn't
mean you're alone. Naresh, it isso nice having you on the show
(01:32):
today. I have so many thingsthat I wanna talk to you about
that Joe and I were talking upabout offline. And so just for
time's sake, I feel like weshould just dive right into it.
And that is the freelance andsolopreneur economy has been
growing so rapidly the past fewyears.
What do you think are thebiggest factors driving this
whole shift?
Naresh Vissa (01:53):
Well, a few things. Number one is we live in
a time that is more connectedthan ever before. So thirty
years ago for example, not eventhirty years ago, I'd say twenty
five years ago, my job, which isrunning a digital media, digital
marketing agency did not existbecause of the lack of
(02:15):
connectivity. Today we are moreconnected in more ways than we
could even imagine, and we'reonly getting more connected
moving forward. So thisconnectivity has really created
this almost this I hate usingthis term, but this globalist
world where the countries areconnected, and you can be in The
(02:37):
United States, or in India, orin Philippines, or in South
Korea, or Japan, or Australia,or Eastern Europe, and you're
part of this online and digitalecosystem.
Doesn't matter which countryyou're part of the same, but ton
of countries. It doesn't matterwhat country you live in or
where you live around the world.All you need is an internet
(02:58):
connection, a computer or alaptop, and boom, the global
digital economy is at yourfingertips. So that's why we've
seen this rise in freelancingand independent contractors all
around the world.
Joe Rando (03:14):
So clarification on that. So are you saying that
people that couldn't necessarilyinteract before are able to
interact and that drove it, oris it the fact that we can kind
of work remotely, work at adistance that there was an
implicit pent up demand to beindependent work as a one person
business that was then enabledby virtue of the technology
(03:36):
connecting us together likethis.
Naresh Vissa (03:38):
Well, it's both of those. So for example, if we
lived in the nineteen ninetiestoday or the nineteen eighties
today, we wouldn't be able tohave this conversation. We would
not be able to see each other'sfaces and record and have this
conversation. We wouldn't beable to have meetings. We
wouldn't be able to hirefreelancers or contractors or
(03:59):
part time employees because noneof this ecosystem was built out.
It's the internet that gave riseto everything that we're doing
right now from wearing theseearbuds to wearing your
headphones to the microphonethat's in front of you to the
connection that allows us to beconnected to the Internet, to
(04:24):
Riverside, which is a softwarethat we're using to record this.
None of this was available inthe eighties or the nineties or
even much of the February. Sothe point that I'm making here
is that if I was born in theeighties, I wouldn't have been
able to start Krish Media &marketing, my company. I
wouldn't have been able to Mostdigital entrepreneurs, most
(04:46):
online people or even IT people,they'd have to work in another
line of business. They'd have todo something different.
So I was able to start mybusiness and do what I do
because of the online anddigital landscape, because of
the online and digitalmarketplace. So to answer your
question, it's both of thosereally.
Carly Ries (05:07):
it's funny because obviously we target
solopreneurs. We work with themday in and day out. But Joe, I
mean, we joke about this all thetime. I am also a contractor.
I'm a solopreneur.
And Joe and I have workedtogether off and on for nine
years, and I've never met him.And we live in this virtual
world. He could've hiredsomebody in Massachusetts. I'm
(05:29):
out in Colorado. Yet, with theway the technology is, we've
been working together for nearlya decade, which saying that out
loud blows my mind, and Ihaven't actually thought about
that for a second, which iscrazy.
But I feel like this access toanybody in the world is a great
thing, but it can also make itreally, really hard to stand out
(05:51):
because now your competitionisn't just Joe Rando next door,
it's Joe Rando across the globe.And so I just kinda wanna hear
from your personal experience,what were some of your biggest
challenges that you faced earlyas a solopreneur, and then how
have you overcome them? BecauseI'm sure other people have gone
through that exact same thing.
Naresh Vissa (06:10):
So a couple of things. Number one, competition
is a good thing becausecompetition makes everybody
better. If there's nocompetition, then let's say if
there's only one person in in anindustry or one company in an
industry and there's nocompetition, then they can put
together they can put out theworst quality service, the worst
quality products, and people arestill gonna buy it because
(06:32):
there's no competition. But whenthere is competition, now people
have a choice. And they're gonnapick what's cheaper or what's
higher quality or just what'sbetter for them.
So more competition is a goodthing. Now to answer your
question head on, firstly, Ilive in the United States Of
(06:56):
America. I brought up thisglobal economy And a 100% of my
client, I'm trying to think, Iwouldn't say a 100. 95% of my
clients since I've been inbusiness for twelve years are
American based businesses.They're Americans. only about
5%, so that's one out of 20clients that we've worked with
(07:18):
have been overseas. So as far asstanding out goes, the
competition is still within TheUnited States. It's like this
other mark the the the globalmarketplace, it's like The US is
still the hub and the base, butthese other countries are there
to support US based businesses.So they're the ones doing the
back end stuff, and this is whenyou hear, oh, our developers are
(07:40):
in Ukraine or Belarus or inIndia or our team is in India.
Those are the support people.
They're not the actual frontfacing companies that I think US
based businesses, they want thatAmerican company as front facing
because maybe they haveexperience working with India or
(08:00):
some of these other countriesand they didn't have the
greatest experience. So theyprefer to pay a little bit of a
premium working with an Americanbased company, even if the back
end work is being done bysomeone in Belarus or in India.
So as far as the competitiongoes, I still see this as
American companies competingagainst American companies. So
(08:22):
there is competition. It's justnot as global as you would
expect.
Carly Ries (08:28):
Got it. So how do you recommend standing out
against the competition?
Naresh Vissa (08:33):
Well, a few things. Number one, it requires
a very complicated answer. Notcomplicated, but a very thorough
answer. So number one is I thinkpricing is incredibly important
because, like I said, we're moreconnected than ever before.
Pricing is so crucial and it'sso key.
(08:53):
So the cost of these, if youwanna call it web services,
information services,technology, technology is
deflationary. So the cost ofthese services should go down
and continue to go down. So oneway that you can stand out is by
offering lower prices. So thatcompany that is still operating
(09:15):
in that nineteen ninetiesmindset most likely charges a
premium that's multiples overwhat the cost of something
should be. So my business forexample, the way that I marketed
and promoted myself and that Istand out, is I say we're a low
cost solutions provider.
So we try to get people throughthe door at a low cost. They can
(09:37):
go to these big marketingagencies and pay $3.04, five
times more or they can come tous or they're gonna get the same
if not better quality, muchbetter communication and
service. So we're like very veryquick. I'll give you an example.
We're working on a book coverdesign, front cover, back cover,
spine for a client who'sreleasing a book.
(09:57):
And he went to one of these bigbook design agencies and they
said it will take three monthsto do the work. Whereas I told
him, hey, fill out this formthat we have and after you
submit that form to me, it'lltake us three business days to
do the entire project and one totwo business days of of edits
after that. So that's how I'mable to stand out from the
(10:21):
competition through my pricingbecause I'm way cheaper, because
I have that open line ofcommunication, because we're
much faster, the quality isstill very strong. That's how
you stand out, but I found thatpricing is the most important
key.
Joe Rando (10:35):
So I'm gonna jump in because this is something I talk
about a lot, and I agree withyou completely that solopreneurs
can charge a lot less thanbigger companies and do really
great work. It's one of myarguments is, you know, hire a
solopreneur and you probablywon't be sorry. But I also argue
that you don't wanna justcompete on price. So at least
when it comes to you versusother solopreneurs that are in a
(10:58):
similar business, I assumeyou're not advocating going
after them and competing onprice as much as it's about
competing on price against thebig guys, so to speak. Is that
fair to say?
Naresh Vissa (11:10):
Well, pricing, to me, that's number one because it
depends on what service we'reoffering here. If we're talking
about, like I said, designservices, there are tens of
thousands of designers outthere. And the fact of the
matter is people are going tobase their decisions on price
because they have 10,000 otheroptions. So that's where that's
where price is really important.Now I wanna bring up an example
(11:33):
of where I got into trouble withpricing.
When I first started my company,the advice I got from somebody
much older than me, somebodyvery close to me and it turned
out to be very bad advice. Theysaid you should charge as much
as possible. It's a free market.Just charge as high as you can
and you'll be good. So I didthat.
I actually landed some prettybig lucrative contracts. But
(11:56):
what happened with that highpricing strategy is that the
contracts were only three monthslong and at the end of the three
months, the client felt likethey got gypped. They would pay
the rest of the contract andthey would not renew the
contract. And so it wasdifficult to grow. It was
difficult to get referrals andit finally reached a point to
where a client said, I'm notpaying the last month because I
(12:16):
feel like I'm not getting enoughfor what I'm paying.
And it was that experience whereI went through that, we reached
a settlement, and I changed mypricing strategy from just
charge as much as you want. Eventhough they agreed, hey I'm
gonna pay what's on thecontract, they always felt like
no matter how much work we did,they always or how much work I
(12:37):
did, they always felt like theywere getting ripped off. So when
I changed that pricing strategy,our retention rate has just
skyrocketed. That was about tenyears ago when I changed that
pricing strategy, the retentionskyrocketed. So I just made it
more fair and now a lot of mymarketing is through my current
existing business.
Joe Rando (12:58):
Yeah. I just wanna be really quick. This is really
important. What you're sayingit's really important, and I
agree with you. But this idea ofwhat it sounds to me like you've
done is gone from trying to beas high as you can be and maybe
a little higher than you shouldhave been given the expectations
of your customers to pricingmore fairly in a way that
customers feel like they'regetting treated well and you're
making enough money to be happyto do the work.
(13:20):
Is that fair?
Naresh Vissa (13:21):
That's almost exactly what I did. Yes.
Joe Rando (13:24):
So, but are there people out there that are trying
to outcompete you on price butcan't win because they can't
produce the quality at theprice? You know what I'm saying?
I hire a designer. I hireanybody. I have a certain
minimum expectation of what I'mgoing to get for quality, and I
don't want the low price leader.
In fact, I usually throw out lowbids because low bids are
(13:46):
usually low for a reason. AndI'm just trying to get to
understand what you're saying ina way that I think is clear for
people that are hearing this.
Naresh Vissa (13:56):
So as I started this conversation, I said
there's never a compromise onquality. So the quality is still
a plus quality. It's ourphilosophy is high quality, low
price. So I know what you saidis, you made it seem if I were
to distill that, low price, lowquality. Quality when I was
(14:17):
charging top notch, the qualityis still the same as what I was
charging the premium amount andthe work is extremely high
quality.
So the reason why I have repeatcustomers and why the customers
are referring their clientsover, it's basically a referral
(14:37):
program I created is because ofthe quality, not necessarily
because of the price.
Joe Rando (14:43):
I get it. Because if I can get high quality and low
price, I'm all in. But how doyou do that? How can you do that
and your competition not dothat?
Naresh Vissa (14:53):
So my competition doesn't necessarily do that.
They don't do that.
Joe Rando (14:57):
And Why don't they do that?
Naresh Vissa (14:59):
They don't do that because they operate their
business in a more old schoolformat of they have overhead
that I don't have.
Joe Rando (15:08):
this is what we're getting to here. but I'm saying
not the agencies, othersolopreneurs. I get the
solopreneur lack of overhead,but we're talking here about the
idea of having high quality andlow price and still making
money. And that's not, you know,that's not obvious how that's
done.
I'm really interested. I reallywanna understand how you're
doing this, if you don't mindsharing the secret sauce.
Naresh Vissa (15:30):
Well, I'm trying to get to the secret sauce.
There are a lot of differentfactors here. And one of them
look, one of them that I cantalk about for example is cost
of living. let's forget aboutthe agencies. Let's talk about
the solopreneurs.
Somebody who lives in New YorkCity or who lives in San
Francisco or let's just say NewYork or California or the
(15:52):
Northeast in general, they'regonna charge a higher price
because their cost of living isa lot higher than somebody like
me who lives in Florida. When Imoved to Florida when I was
renting, I now own severalproperties, but when I was
renting in my mid twenties, Iwas paying something like $900 a
month for rent, cable, internet,utilities. I mean that's, and I
(16:17):
had moved from Maryland where Iwas paying closer to maybe
$131,400 dollars a month. Sowhen you think about, that's a
factor that you have to takeinto consideration when you're
charging your clients. It's yes,I need to make enough money to
pay my rent and pay my bills andpay my groceries and the popular
thing right now is paying foreggs which I don't eat eggs, but
(16:41):
you need to take that intoaccount.
But I was able to come down onmy price even more from when I
lived in Maryland and then Imoved down to Florida because my
cost of living went down. Ofcourse, there's no state income
tax in Florida as well. Sothat's an important factor to
take into consideration. I knowthat I was competing against
many solopreneurs in New YorkCity for example. I know some
(17:04):
tech people who I competeagainst who are just straight
solopreneurs in New York Cityand they do have to charge top
dollar.
And I've seen them. In fact,I've cut contracts with clients
who I work with. I've cutcontracts with solopreneurs
because we found people withinThe United States and overseas
were offering that same ITservice for a much lower price
(17:27):
and better quality. So justbecause you charge a high price
doesn't mean that you're gettinggreat quality. And now with
these websites, which I'm sureyou've covered on your show,
like Fiverr and Upwork andfreelance.com, people are vetted
and they have reviews and theyhave stars in front of them and
(17:49):
you can see who's good and who'snot good.
And I started using these sitestwelve years ago, a long time
ago. I started using them twelveyears ago. And there was a trial
and error process with them andyou go through the trial and
error and you find the goodpeople. But as a solopreneur,
you can join these sites andbuild up your reputation on
(18:09):
these sites and get morebusiness that way as well. And
you'll see that the pricing isvery competitive on these sites.
Carly Ries (18:16):
Yeah. That all makes sense. Well, okay. So for people
that want to start off as asolopreneur, like these sites
might be a good idea, but youalso recommend that people start
their business as a side hustle,which we wholeheartedly agree
with. So can you kind ofelaborate why and how people can
pull off that transition fromcorporate to corporate with a
side hustle to full timesolopreneur?
Naresh Vissa (18:39):
I'm gonna share what I did because everybody is
different, but I actually gotstarted on the side when I was
still in college. So I was like19 years old when I got started
with the side hustle. And Ithought it was gonna be a
lifetime side hustle. I liked ita lot. I started out producing
AMFM radio shows.
This was a long time ago, on theside and I could do it all
(19:01):
remotely. And as podcastingbecame a thing in 2011, 2012,
that's when I got involved inthat. And then one of my clients
ended up hiring me full time.Now throughout this process
while I had this side hustle, Iwas in school and then I got a
full time job. I was working afull time job.
And it was in 2013 that I leftmy full time job because my side
(19:26):
hustle was growing and I feltlike, or I should say the
company I was working for, oneof their largest competitors
basically told me that theywould become a client of mine.
And I had many competitors forthe company I was working for
saying like, I'd love for you towork for me, and instead of
working as an employee, becauseas an employee you can only work
(19:47):
at one place. I said, you knowwhat, I should just pursue this
side hustle full time and thatway I could work with all these
different companies. And theyhappened to be in the
neighborhood that I lived inMaryland at the time. So that's
how I got started with the sidehustle.
It was 2,008 when I started itand 2013 when I jumped in full
time. So it took about five tosix years to fully feel
(20:11):
comfortable and confident tojump into that side hustle. What
I did not do was just gostraight to the side hustle. I
still had a safety net, I stillhad the full time job, and I
knew that if the side hustledidn't work out after I jumped
in full time, I could always goback and get a full time job.
Carly Ries (20:27):
Well so speaking of just jumping in and I mean
people are so nervous even withthe side hustle to go full in on
their solopreneur likes. So doyou think there are any key
traits or skills that make somesolopreneurs more successful
than others?
Naresh Vissa (20:43):
Well, it's complicated. And I know I
already used that term oncebefore. This is all complicated
stuff. I think people are veryused to studying for a test and
getting an A. Interviewing for ajob and getting the job.
They're not used to doing the HRand doing the finance and doing
(21:05):
the marketing and doing thesales, doing the business
development. As a solopreneur,you are your own business. Even
though you might be a one manshow, you have to do it all. And
so my advice is if you're goodat all these different things
and you have a passion, well nota passion, but if you like. It's
almost like a game for me.
(21:26):
Like I like running my books andyou know, right now it's tax
season for example. Well I don'tlike actually doing the taxes
but I mean I have folders andfolders worth of documentation
and I like collecting all thatand then handing it over to my
accountant. And then again whenit comes to the sales side, I am
(21:52):
the face of my business.
Joe Rando (21:55):
Do you like selling? Do you like selling?
Naresh Vissa (21:57):
I hate selling, but I like sales. So I don't
like hard selling.
Joe Rando (22:02):
Yeah. Okay. But you're saying you have a sales
process that you enjoy?
Naresh Vissa (22:06):
I have a sales pro and my philosophy on sales is
very different from how the oldschool salespeople tell you to
do things. I'm not an interfacecar salesman type. I'm not gonna
be calling people on the phonefollowing up. Hey. We had this
meeting.
What do you think? I'm veryhere's what I have to offer.
Here's why I love it. Here's whyI think it's good for you. If
(22:27):
you're interested, you contactme and you come to me and boom,
it's gonna happen.
It's very very I believe in lowgrads. How I like being sold to.
I don't like being sold to firstoff, but I like if I have a pain
point, I know what I want andI'll move forward and I feel you
have to treat people that way.And it's worked out really well
(22:48):
for me. I did not mesh very wellwith many clients because they
wanted me to be that hardpushing, high pressure, hey you
need to buy this right now typeof thing.
That's not who I am. So toanswer your question, do I like
sales? I don't like selling, butlike I told you, I do like
(23:09):
sales. And I'm pretty good atit.
Joe Rando (23:11):
You created a sales process that you enjoy. That's
awesome. That's the part a lotof people have trouble with
that. That's very cool.
Carly Ries (23:19):
Well, and I wanna circle back really quick to the
qualities and characteristics ofsuccessful solopreneurs. Because
I think one thing you just saidwhen you said studying for a
test, like you can study for atest and get an a. You can
interview for a job, get a job.And I was like, are you talking
to me specifically? Because whenI first started as a
solopreneur, I was the hardworking student that went in
(23:39):
that a.
if I interviewed I'd try hard toget that job and all that. But
my issue was I could always prepfor those, and there weren't any
problem solving opportunities.It was study, get it. Research
the company, get it. And when Ifirst started, it was the lack
(24:00):
of like, where do I go to figureout how to put my sales process
together?
Luckily, what I left to do wasmarketing, so I had that in my
back pocket. But where do I goto figure out my accounting?
Blah blah blah. And all thesethings. And I think that's what
throws people.
It's just feeling like, wellI've done well doing this and
interviewing for these jobs so Ican run my own business. But
(24:21):
then they have to figure out howto run every aspect of their
business which people aren'treally trained to do.
Naresh Vissa (24:27):
They're not trained to do that and that's
why I say it's like a game. Ihad to do a lot of stuff on my
own. It's purely out of notnecessarily learning because I
liked playing that game. I likedlearning that stuff. I think I'm
kind of a born businessman.
And as a businessman you have todo all this. Gonna have to
(24:49):
eventually you can hire peoplebut you still have to learn it
yourself. So I, in high school,don't take business courses in
high school. You don't takebusiness course until college
really. In high school, myschool offered like two business
classes the entire four years.
And I took both of them and oneof them was an economics class,
the other one was an actualbusiness class where you like
(25:10):
start a business and you go outto the street and try to sell
products and manage people. So Idid all that and I was bad at
it. I was really bad but I'dsay, you know what, I think I
can get better. I think I canget really good at this. I think
I have a knack for this.
This wasn't very good this timearound but this is something
that I could see myself pursuingand doing. And I immediately did
that. By the age of 16 I wasbasically in the business world
(25:33):
and already thinking andideating and I got my first
internship when I was, as soonas I could drive. It was a paid
internship for a marketingcompany and I didn't know much
about the company. It wassoftware sales company.
I didn't know much aboutsoftware but I said you know
what, I'm just gonna do this andthe skills that I learned when I
was 16 years old, it set thestage and they're skills that I
(25:55):
still use today.
Carly Ries (25:58):
Well so there are a lot of people that, like you've
said, this has gone my way, I'vebeen successful at this, blah
blah blah. But you also say thatgetting fired is a part of the
solopreneur game. And why do youthink that's important and when
can people learn from it?
Naresh Vissa (26:14):
Well, being fired in general is really important
in life because when you'refired, you're told that you're
not good enough. Because if youwere good enough, then you
wouldn't have gotten fired. Sothe people who hang around,
they're people who actually havevalue that should hang around.
(26:37):
So what can you learn from beingfired? It's A, I wasn't good
enough.
Why wasn't I good enough? B, Ineed to improve. I'm not good
enough and therefore I need toimprove on x y and z. So I've
been fired many times, many manytimes even while being a
solopreneur, even if I have manydifferent clients, clients still
(26:59):
fire me all the time. Andsometimes it's a dollars and
cents issue.
It's hey we can't come to anagreement from a dollars and
cents perspective. But othertimes, and it hasn't happened
much recently, but when I wasyounger, it was that hey you're
just the quality, we talked alot about quality here. The
(27:20):
quality isn't good enough oryou're not good enough. And so
being fired I think is a reallyimportant part of the journey
because it'll force you then bethat salesperson, to try to get
more clients, to try to keepthat. It can be a traumatic
event and I remember I got firedonce from a big client and I
(27:43):
basically talked about changingmy pricing strategy earlier, but
I also said I need to have asmany clients as possible.
I can't be dependent on one ortwo clients. I need to have 10
clients or 12 clients. So ittaught me that because I
remember somebody told me, theysaid the biggest problem I see
with these solopreneurs,solopreneurship has been going
(28:06):
on forever, and somebody who Irespect, somebody who does very
well, is successful in businesstold me, they said the biggest
problem that I see is thatpeople, they only get one
client, they're dependent onthat one client, they lose that
one client and then they findthemselves unemployed and I
don't wanna see that happen toyou. And literally three months
(28:26):
after he told me that, that didhappen to me. And that was
during my first year inbusiness.
And I said hey that's a goodlesson to learn. I was like 24,
25 at the time, and I saidthat's a good lesson to learn so
now I'm gonna expand. Becauseit's easy to get complacent
whether you're working a fulltime job, one stream of income,
or you call yourself asolopreneur with one big client.
It's easy to become complacentand I learned through that
(28:50):
experience and said, I'm notjust gonna get more clients, I'm
gonna start a second businessand I'm gonna buy real estate
properties and I'm gonna get areal estate license and save
money on taxes. Because savingmoney on taxes is also kind of
an income stream because that'smoney that you get to keep in
your pocket.
So now I'd say solopreneurshipis just like one out of five
things that I do. And it'sbecause of that PTSD that I got
(29:12):
from getting fired or being laidoff. And I feel like this
specific segment is so importantbecause right now there are mass
layoffs and mass firingshappening all around The United
States, whether in the privatesector or in the government. And
what people don't talk enoughabout, they talk about the
empathetic part and theemotional part of it, but what
they don't talk enough about isfirings, layoffs, this has been
(29:34):
going on since the beginning ofhumankind. And what we need to
do is teach our children, I havetwo young boys, We need to teach
our children what I just saidearlier, not to become dependent
on any one specific source ofincome.
I actually saw the statisticsthat forty percent of US
citizens will get fired. Fortypercent will get fired at least
(29:58):
once over their career. Sothat's quite a lot I mean,
that's almost half thepopulation that is gonna face a
layoff or a firing. And men getfired more than women or men get
laid off more than women. So ifyou're a man, the number
skyrockets to something likesixty percent of your chances of
(30:18):
being laid off or fired, atleast once during your lifetime.
So it's going to happen, I hateto break it to people who say oh
I've never gotten fired, I'venever gotten laid off. It's
gonna happen, especially theolder that you get the higher
your salary. If it hasn'thappened to you yet, is going to
happen and what we need to beteaching is these skills.
Because if you have skills, wetalked about being a
(30:40):
solopreneur, the way that youget clients, the way that you
get business is by developingcertain skills, showing off
those skills, and charging forthose skills because those
skills create value. And this iscompletely lost in all the mumbo
jumbo of layoffs and all thatother stuff because somebody who
can who can create value and whoprovides value will always have
(31:03):
a job.
Always have a job.
Carly Ries (31:05):
So Joe, he said if it hasn't happened, it could
happen to you. So, just tell mewhat I need to do to not let it
happen to me. Well, so it soundslike you you have the no
regrets, all opportunities kindof mentality with all of it.
They're all educational moments.But if there was something you
(31:26):
could have changed in the past,what would you have changed that
other solopreneurs can learnfrom?
Naresh Vissa (31:31):
Well, I brought up the pricing. That's number one.
Number two, I'll bring up somelegal things. You definitely
wanna read legal contracts whenyou get into them. If you don't
have legal contracts, you wantthem in place. even if that
means going on chat GPT, gettingchat GPT to put together a legal
contract for you, or downloadinga template, you absolutely want
that because when you're asolopreneur you don't have a
(31:51):
legal department, you don't havea safety net or a lifeline
looking out for you and Ibrought up legal issues that I
had earlier. And it's simplythose legal issues are because I
created my own contracts withoutactually getting a lawyer to
read over them.
Joe Rando (32:07):
Yeah. It's interesting with ChatGPT and
contracts. I'm nervous advisingit without a review because I've
seen ChatGPT go off the deepend. You know?
And so it's a little bit like,you know, I've tried it just to
see what it would do. I had tocreate a a residential lease for
Massachusetts, and it lookedpretty good, honestly. And I
(32:27):
know a little bit about leasingOkay. Because I came out of the
real estate business. So, yeah,with respect to ChatGPT and
contracts, you gotta be carefulbecause it does hallucinate
sometimes.
So better than nothing. I'vealways said, you know, you're
better off having a contractthan not having a contract, but
just be a little careful.
Carly Ries (32:44):
Yes. Well, so many good tips of nuggets of wisdom
in this conversation. Naresh, Idon't want to end this call. I
feel like we have so many morethings that we could cover, but
we ask all of our guests thisquestion. What is your favorite
quote about success?
Naresh Vissa (33:00):
It's a quote from Thomas Jefferson who was one of
my favorite presidents.
I can answer your question headon, but I just wanna talk about
Tom Thomas Jefferson reallyquickly because he was actually
a solopreneur. And how was he asolopreneur before he became
president? Our presidents, whenthis nation was founded, they
(33:22):
were renaissance men. BenFranklin who did not become
president, never tried to becomepresident, but he was one of our
founding fathers.
He invented the stove. Heinvented, the lightning rod. He
invented so many you can find somany more things that he he was
basically an inventor and hehelped lead us to independence.
In Thomas Jefferson's case, heinvented many things. He was a
(33:45):
prolific writer.
He was, obviously super smartand he invented the swivel
chair. I think one of you issitting in a swivel chair if you
can roll around. That's becauseof Thomas Jefferson. And so, I
bring up Thomas Jeffersonbecause he's had my favorite
quote on success which is, Ifind that the harder I work, the
more luck I seem to have. And hewas somebody who works
(34:07):
tirelessly, would justconstantly work and work and
opportunities kept coming hisway.
And people would say, oh you'resuch a lucky person to become
president. You're so lucky tohave invented this. And he said,
it's not luck. It's just me justconstantly working and working
and most of the stuff like thepresidency, like being a part of
the founding fathership, Thathappened because those
(34:29):
opportunities came his waybecause of his hard work. It's
not like he was just obviouslythere was no TV back then, but
it's not like whatever theequivalent would be to just
sitting at home and twiddlinghis thumbs and then somebody
came to him and said, hey whydon't you write the declaration
of independence?
That's absolutely not how ithappened. He was just a tiresome
constant worker.
Carly Ries (34:47):
Oh great quote and I love how you tied it back. Well
if people want to learn moreabout you, where can they find
you?
Naresh Vissa (34:53):
Nareshvissa.com, Nareshvissa.com. And my company
is called Krish Media andMarketing. It's an online
digital media and marketingagency. It's
Krishmediamarketing.com.
Carly Ries (35:07):
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming on
this show today. We reallyappreciate your time. And
listeners, thank you so much fortuning in. Please share this
episode with a friend, subscribeon your favorite platform, and
leave that five star review, andwe will see you next time.
You may be going solo inbusiness, but that doesn't mean
you're alone. In fact, millionsof people are in your shoes,
(35:29):
running a one person businessand 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.
What do global connectivity, getting fired, and
(00:03):
standing out in a sea offreelancers have in common?
They're all part of the modernsolopreneur's journey, at least
according to digital mediaexpert Naresh Vissa. In this
episode, we dive into howtoday's freelance economy was
built, why getting fired mightbe the best thing that's ever
happened to your business, andwhat solopreneurs can do to rise
above the noise in a globalmarketplace. So whether you're
(00:24):
pricing your services, preppingto go full time, or rethinking
your sales approach, thisepisode is full of real talk and
actionable advice. You'relistening to the Aspiring
Solopreneur, the podcast forthose just taking the bold step
or even just thinking abouttaking that step into the world
of solo entrepreneurship.
My name is Carly Ries and mycohost Joe Rando and I are your
(00:48):
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
(01:09):
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 paved the
way before you, then stickaround.
We've got your back becauseflying solo in business doesn't
mean you're alone. Naresh, it isso nice having you on the show
(01:32):
today. I have so many thingsthat I wanna talk to you about
that Joe and I were talking upabout offline. And so just for
time's sake, I feel like weshould just dive right into it.
And that is the freelance andsolopreneur economy has been
growing so rapidly the past fewyears.
What do you think are thebiggest factors driving this
whole shift?
Naresh Vissa (01:53):
Well, a few things. Number one is we live in
a time that is more connectedthan ever before. So thirty
years ago for example, not eventhirty years ago, I'd say twenty
five years ago, my job, which isrunning a digital media, digital
marketing agency did not existbecause of the lack of
(02:15):
connectivity. Today we are moreconnected in more ways than we
could even imagine, and we'reonly getting more connected
moving forward. So thisconnectivity has really created
this almost this I hate usingthis term, but this globalist
world where the countries areconnected, and you can be in The
(02:37):
United States, or in India, orin Philippines, or in South
Korea, or Japan, or Australia,or Eastern Europe, and you're
part of this online and digitalecosystem.
Doesn't matter which countryyou're part of the same, but ton
of countries. It doesn't matterwhat country you live in or
where you live around the world.All you need is an internet
(02:58):
connection, a computer or alaptop, and boom, the global
digital economy is at yourfingertips. So that's why we've
seen this rise in freelancingand independent contractors all
around the world.
Joe Rando (03:14):
So clarification on that. So are you saying that
people that couldn't necessarilyinteract before are able to
interact and that drove it, oris it the fact that we can kind
of work remotely, work at adistance that there was an
implicit pent up demand to beindependent work as a one person
business that was then enabledby virtue of the technology
(03:36):
connecting us together likethis.
Naresh Vissa (03:38):
Well, it's both of those. So for example, if we
lived in the nineteen ninetiestoday or the nineteen eighties
today, we wouldn't be able tohave this conversation. We would
not be able to see each other'sfaces and record and have this
conversation. We wouldn't beable to have meetings. We
wouldn't be able to hirefreelancers or contractors or
(03:59):
part time employees because noneof this ecosystem was built out.
It's the internet that gave riseto everything that we're doing
right now from wearing theseearbuds to wearing your
headphones to the microphonethat's in front of you to the
connection that allows us to beconnected to the Internet, to
(04:24):
Riverside, which is a softwarethat we're using to record this.
None of this was available inthe eighties or the nineties or
even much of the February. Sothe point that I'm making here
is that if I was born in theeighties, I wouldn't have been
able to start Krish Media &marketing, my company. I
wouldn't have been able to Mostdigital entrepreneurs, most
(04:46):
online people or even IT people,they'd have to work in another
line of business. They'd have todo something different.
So I was able to start mybusiness and do what I do
because of the online anddigital landscape, because of
the online and digitalmarketplace. So to answer your
question, it's both of thosereally.
Carly Ries (05:07):
it's funny because obviously we target
solopreneurs. We work with themday in and day out. But Joe, I
mean, we joke about this all thetime. I am also a contractor.
I'm a solopreneur.
And Joe and I have workedtogether off and on for nine
years, and I've never met him.And we live in this virtual
world. He could've hiredsomebody in Massachusetts. I'm
(05:29):
out in Colorado. Yet, with theway the technology is, we've
been working together for nearlya decade, which saying that out
loud blows my mind, and Ihaven't actually thought about
that for a second, which iscrazy.
But I feel like this access toanybody in the world is a great
thing, but it can also make itreally, really hard to stand out
(05:51):
because now your competitionisn't just Joe Rando next door,
it's Joe Rando across the globe.And so I just kinda wanna hear
from your personal experience,what were some of your biggest
challenges that you faced earlyas a solopreneur, and then how
have you overcome them? BecauseI'm sure other people have gone
through that exact same thing.
Naresh Vissa (06:10):
So a couple of things. Number one, competition
is a good thing becausecompetition makes everybody
better. If there's nocompetition, then let's say if
there's only one person in in anindustry or one company in an
industry and there's nocompetition, then they can put
together they can put out theworst quality service, the worst
quality products, and people arestill gonna buy it because
(06:32):
there's no competition. But whenthere is competition, now people
have a choice. And they're gonnapick what's cheaper or what's
higher quality or just what'sbetter for them.
So more competition is a goodthing. Now to answer your
question head on, firstly, Ilive in the United States Of
(06:56):
America. I brought up thisglobal economy And a 100% of my
client, I'm trying to think, Iwouldn't say a 100. 95% of my
clients since I've been inbusiness for twelve years are
American based businesses.They're Americans. only about
5%, so that's one out of 20clients that we've worked with
(07:18):
have been overseas. So as far asstanding out goes, the
competition is still within TheUnited States. It's like this
other mark the the the globalmarketplace, it's like The US is
still the hub and the base, butthese other countries are there
to support US based businesses.So they're the ones doing the
back end stuff, and this is whenyou hear, oh, our developers are
(07:40):
in Ukraine or Belarus or inIndia or our team is in India.
Those are the support people.
They're not the actual frontfacing companies that I think US
based businesses, they want thatAmerican company as front facing
because maybe they haveexperience working with India or
(08:00):
some of these other countriesand they didn't have the
greatest experience. So theyprefer to pay a little bit of a
premium working with an Americanbased company, even if the back
end work is being done bysomeone in Belarus or in India.
So as far as the competitiongoes, I still see this as
American companies competingagainst American companies. So
(08:22):
there is competition. It's justnot as global as you would
expect.
Carly Ries (08:28):
Got it. So how do you recommend standing out
against the competition?
Naresh Vissa (08:33):
Well, a few things. Number one, it requires
a very complicated answer. Notcomplicated, but a very thorough
answer. So number one is I thinkpricing is incredibly important
because, like I said, we're moreconnected than ever before.
Pricing is so crucial and it'sso key.
(08:53):
So the cost of these, if youwanna call it web services,
information services,technology, technology is
deflationary. So the cost ofthese services should go down
and continue to go down. So oneway that you can stand out is by
offering lower prices. So thatcompany that is still operating
(09:15):
in that nineteen ninetiesmindset most likely charges a
premium that's multiples overwhat the cost of something
should be. So my business forexample, the way that I marketed
and promoted myself and that Istand out, is I say we're a low
cost solutions provider.
So we try to get people throughthe door at a low cost. They can
(09:37):
go to these big marketingagencies and pay $3.04, five
times more or they can come tous or they're gonna get the same
if not better quality, muchbetter communication and
service. So we're like very veryquick. I'll give you an example.
We're working on a book coverdesign, front cover, back cover,
spine for a client who'sreleasing a book.
(09:57):
And he went to one of these bigbook design agencies and they
said it will take three monthsto do the work. Whereas I told
him, hey, fill out this formthat we have and after you
submit that form to me, it'lltake us three business days to
do the entire project and one totwo business days of of edits
after that. So that's how I'mable to stand out from the
(10:21):
competition through my pricingbecause I'm way cheaper, because
I have that open line ofcommunication, because we're
much faster, the quality isstill very strong. That's how
you stand out, but I found thatpricing is the most important
key.
Joe Rando (10:35):
So I'm gonna jump in because this is something I talk
about a lot, and I agree withyou completely that solopreneurs
can charge a lot less thanbigger companies and do really
great work. It's one of myarguments is, you know, hire a
solopreneur and you probablywon't be sorry. But I also argue
that you don't wanna justcompete on price. So at least
when it comes to you versusother solopreneurs that are in a
(10:58):
similar business, I assumeyou're not advocating going
after them and competing onprice as much as it's about
competing on price against thebig guys, so to speak. Is that
fair to say?
Naresh Vissa (11:10):
Well, pricing, to me, that's number one because it
depends on what service we'reoffering here. If we're talking
about, like I said, designservices, there are tens of
thousands of designers outthere. And the fact of the
matter is people are going tobase their decisions on price
because they have 10,000 otheroptions. So that's where that's
where price is really important.Now I wanna bring up an example
(11:33):
of where I got into trouble withpricing.
When I first started my company,the advice I got from somebody
much older than me, somebodyvery close to me and it turned
out to be very bad advice. Theysaid you should charge as much
as possible. It's a free market.Just charge as high as you can
and you'll be good. So I didthat.
I actually landed some prettybig lucrative contracts. But
(11:56):
what happened with that highpricing strategy is that the
contracts were only three monthslong and at the end of the three
months, the client felt likethey got gypped. They would pay
the rest of the contract andthey would not renew the
contract. And so it wasdifficult to grow. It was
difficult to get referrals andit finally reached a point to
where a client said, I'm notpaying the last month because I
(12:16):
feel like I'm not getting enoughfor what I'm paying.
And it was that experience whereI went through that, we reached
a settlement, and I changed mypricing strategy from just
charge as much as you want. Eventhough they agreed, hey I'm
gonna pay what's on thecontract, they always felt like
no matter how much work we did,they always or how much work I
(12:37):
did, they always felt like theywere getting ripped off. So when
I changed that pricing strategy,our retention rate has just
skyrocketed. That was about tenyears ago when I changed that
pricing strategy, the retentionskyrocketed. So I just made it
more fair and now a lot of mymarketing is through my current
existing business.
Joe Rando (12:58):
Yeah. I just wanna be really quick. This is really
important. What you're sayingit's really important, and I
agree with you. But this idea ofwhat it sounds to me like you've
done is gone from trying to beas high as you can be and maybe
a little higher than you shouldhave been given the expectations
of your customers to pricingmore fairly in a way that
customers feel like they'regetting treated well and you're
making enough money to be happyto do the work.
(13:20):
Is that fair?
Naresh Vissa (13:21):
That's almost exactly what I did. Yes.
Joe Rando (13:24):
So, but are there people out there that are trying
to outcompete you on price butcan't win because they can't
produce the quality at theprice? You know what I'm saying?
I hire a designer. I hireanybody. I have a certain
minimum expectation of what I'mgoing to get for quality, and I
don't want the low price leader.
In fact, I usually throw out lowbids because low bids are
(13:46):
usually low for a reason. AndI'm just trying to get to
understand what you're saying ina way that I think is clear for
people that are hearing this.
Naresh Vissa (13:56):
So as I started this conversation, I said
there's never a compromise onquality. So the quality is still
a plus quality. It's ourphilosophy is high quality, low
price. So I know what you saidis, you made it seem if I were
to distill that, low price, lowquality. Quality when I was
(14:17):
charging top notch, the qualityis still the same as what I was
charging the premium amount andthe work is extremely high
quality.
So the reason why I have repeatcustomers and why the customers
are referring their clientsover, it's basically a referral
(14:37):
program I created is because ofthe quality, not necessarily
because of the price.
Joe Rando (14:43):
I get it. Because if I can get high quality and low
price, I'm all in. But how doyou do that? How can you do that
and your competition not dothat?
Naresh Vissa (14:53):
So my competition doesn't necessarily do that.
They don't do that.
Joe Rando (14:57):
And Why don't they do that?
Naresh Vissa (14:59):
They don't do that because they operate their
business in a more old schoolformat of they have overhead
that I don't have.
Joe Rando (15:08):
this is what we're getting to here. but I'm saying
not the agencies, othersolopreneurs. I get the
solopreneur lack of overhead,but we're talking here about the
idea of having high quality andlow price and still making
money. And that's not, you know,that's not obvious how that's
done.
I'm really interested. I reallywanna understand how you're
doing this, if you don't mindsharing the secret sauce.
Naresh Vissa (15:30):
Well, I'm trying to get to the secret sauce.
There are a lot of differentfactors here. And one of them
look, one of them that I cantalk about for example is cost
of living. let's forget aboutthe agencies. Let's talk about
the solopreneurs.
Somebody who lives in New YorkCity or who lives in San
Francisco or let's just say NewYork or California or the
(15:52):
Northeast in general, they'regonna charge a higher price
because their cost of living isa lot higher than somebody like
me who lives in Florida. When Imoved to Florida when I was
renting, I now own severalproperties, but when I was
renting in my mid twenties, Iwas paying something like $900 a
month for rent, cable, internet,utilities. I mean that's, and I
(16:17):
had moved from Maryland where Iwas paying closer to maybe
$131,400 dollars a month. Sowhen you think about, that's a
factor that you have to takeinto consideration when you're
charging your clients. It's yes,I need to make enough money to
pay my rent and pay my bills andpay my groceries and the popular
thing right now is paying foreggs which I don't eat eggs, but
(16:41):
you need to take that intoaccount.
But I was able to come down onmy price even more from when I
lived in Maryland and then Imoved down to Florida because my
cost of living went down. Ofcourse, there's no state income
tax in Florida as well. Sothat's an important factor to
take into consideration. I knowthat I was competing against
many solopreneurs in New YorkCity for example. I know some
(17:04):
tech people who I competeagainst who are just straight
solopreneurs in New York Cityand they do have to charge top
dollar.
And I've seen them. In fact,I've cut contracts with clients
who I work with. I've cutcontracts with solopreneurs
because we found people withinThe United States and overseas
were offering that same ITservice for a much lower price
(17:27):
and better quality. So justbecause you charge a high price
doesn't mean that you're gettinggreat quality. And now with
these websites, which I'm sureyou've covered on your show,
like Fiverr and Upwork andfreelance.com, people are vetted
and they have reviews and theyhave stars in front of them and
(17:49):
you can see who's good and who'snot good.
And I started using these sitestwelve years ago, a long time
ago. I started using them twelveyears ago. And there was a trial
and error process with them andyou go through the trial and
error and you find the goodpeople. But as a solopreneur,
you can join these sites andbuild up your reputation on
(18:09):
these sites and get morebusiness that way as well. And
you'll see that the pricing isvery competitive on these sites.
Carly Ries (18:16):
Yeah. That all makes sense. Well, okay. So for people
that want to start off as asolopreneur, like these sites
might be a good idea, but youalso recommend that people start
their business as a side hustle,which we wholeheartedly agree
with. So can you kind ofelaborate why and how people can
pull off that transition fromcorporate to corporate with a
side hustle to full timesolopreneur?
Naresh Vissa (18:39):
I'm gonna share what I did because everybody is
different, but I actually gotstarted on the side when I was
still in college. So I was like19 years old when I got started
with the side hustle. And Ithought it was gonna be a
lifetime side hustle. I liked ita lot. I started out producing
AMFM radio shows.
This was a long time ago, on theside and I could do it all
(19:01):
remotely. And as podcastingbecame a thing in 2011, 2012,
that's when I got involved inthat. And then one of my clients
ended up hiring me full time.Now throughout this process
while I had this side hustle, Iwas in school and then I got a
full time job. I was working afull time job.
And it was in 2013 that I leftmy full time job because my side
(19:26):
hustle was growing and I feltlike, or I should say the
company I was working for, oneof their largest competitors
basically told me that theywould become a client of mine.
And I had many competitors forthe company I was working for
saying like, I'd love for you towork for me, and instead of
working as an employee, becauseas an employee you can only work
(19:47):
at one place. I said, you knowwhat, I should just pursue this
side hustle full time and thatway I could work with all these
different companies. And theyhappened to be in the
neighborhood that I lived inMaryland at the time. So that's
how I got started with the sidehustle.
It was 2,008 when I started itand 2013 when I jumped in full
time. So it took about five tosix years to fully feel
(20:11):
comfortable and confident tojump into that side hustle. What
I did not do was just gostraight to the side hustle. I
still had a safety net, I stillhad the full time job, and I
knew that if the side hustledidn't work out after I jumped
in full time, I could always goback and get a full time job.
Carly Ries (20:27):
Well so speaking of just jumping in and I mean
people are so nervous even withthe side hustle to go full in on
their solopreneur likes. So doyou think there are any key
traits or skills that make somesolopreneurs more successful
than others?
Naresh Vissa (20:43):
Well, it's complicated. And I know I
already used that term oncebefore. This is all complicated
stuff. I think people are veryused to studying for a test and
getting an A. Interviewing for ajob and getting the job.
They're not used to doing the HRand doing the finance and doing
(21:05):
the marketing and doing thesales, doing the business
development. As a solopreneur,you are your own business. Even
though you might be a one manshow, you have to do it all. And
so my advice is if you're goodat all these different things
and you have a passion, well nota passion, but if you like. It's
almost like a game for me.
(21:26):
Like I like running my books andyou know, right now it's tax
season for example. Well I don'tlike actually doing the taxes
but I mean I have folders andfolders worth of documentation
and I like collecting all thatand then handing it over to my
accountant. And then again whenit comes to the sales side, I am
(21:52):
the face of my business.
Joe Rando (21:55):
Do you like selling? Do you like selling?
Naresh Vissa (21:57):
I hate selling, but I like sales. So I don't
like hard selling.
Joe Rando (22:02):
Yeah. Okay. But you're saying you have a sales
process that you enjoy?
Naresh Vissa (22:06):
I have a sales pro and my philosophy on sales is
very different from how the oldschool salespeople tell you to
do things. I'm not an interfacecar salesman type. I'm not gonna
be calling people on the phonefollowing up. Hey. We had this
meeting.
What do you think? I'm veryhere's what I have to offer.
Here's why I love it. Here's whyI think it's good for you. If
(22:27):
you're interested, you contactme and you come to me and boom,
it's gonna happen.
It's very very I believe in lowgrads. How I like being sold to.
I don't like being sold to firstoff, but I like if I have a pain
point, I know what I want andI'll move forward and I feel you
have to treat people that way.And it's worked out really well
(22:48):
for me. I did not mesh very wellwith many clients because they
wanted me to be that hardpushing, high pressure, hey you
need to buy this right now typeof thing.
That's not who I am. So toanswer your question, do I like
sales? I don't like selling, butlike I told you, I do like
(23:09):
sales. And I'm pretty good atit.
Joe Rando (23:11):
You created a sales process that you enjoy. That's
awesome. That's the part a lotof people have trouble with
that. That's very cool.
Carly Ries (23:19):
Well, and I wanna circle back really quick to the
qualities and characteristics ofsuccessful solopreneurs. Because
I think one thing you just saidwhen you said studying for a
test, like you can study for atest and get an a. You can
interview for a job, get a job.And I was like, are you talking
to me specifically? Because whenI first started as a
solopreneur, I was the hardworking student that went in
(23:39):
that a.
if I interviewed I'd try hard toget that job and all that. But
my issue was I could always prepfor those, and there weren't any
problem solving opportunities.It was study, get it. Research
the company, get it. And when Ifirst started, it was the lack
(24:00):
of like, where do I go to figureout how to put my sales process
together?
Luckily, what I left to do wasmarketing, so I had that in my
back pocket. But where do I goto figure out my accounting?
Blah blah blah. And all thesethings. And I think that's what
throws people.
It's just feeling like, wellI've done well doing this and
interviewing for these jobs so Ican run my own business. But
(24:21):
then they have to figure out howto run every aspect of their
business which people aren'treally trained to do.
Naresh Vissa (24:27):
They're not trained to do that and that's
why I say it's like a game. Ihad to do a lot of stuff on my
own. It's purely out of notnecessarily learning because I
liked playing that game. I likedlearning that stuff. I think I'm
kind of a born businessman.
And as a businessman you have todo all this. Gonna have to
(24:49):
eventually you can hire peoplebut you still have to learn it
yourself. So I, in high school,don't take business courses in
high school. You don't takebusiness course until college
really. In high school, myschool offered like two business
classes the entire four years.
And I took both of them and oneof them was an economics class,
the other one was an actualbusiness class where you like
(25:10):
start a business and you go outto the street and try to sell
products and manage people. So Idid all that and I was bad at
it. I was really bad but I'dsay, you know what, I think I
can get better. I think I canget really good at this. I think
I have a knack for this.
This wasn't very good this timearound but this is something
that I could see myself pursuingand doing. And I immediately did
that. By the age of 16 I wasbasically in the business world
(25:33):
and already thinking andideating and I got my first
internship when I was, as soonas I could drive. It was a paid
internship for a marketingcompany and I didn't know much
about the company. It wassoftware sales company.
I didn't know much aboutsoftware but I said you know
what, I'm just gonna do this andthe skills that I learned when I
was 16 years old, it set thestage and they're skills that I
(25:55):
still use today.
Carly Ries (25:58):
Well so there are a lot of people that, like you've
said, this has gone my way, I'vebeen successful at this, blah
blah blah. But you also say thatgetting fired is a part of the
solopreneur game. And why do youthink that's important and when
can people learn from it?
Naresh Vissa (26:14):
Well, being fired in general is really important
in life because when you'refired, you're told that you're
not good enough. Because if youwere good enough, then you
wouldn't have gotten fired. Sothe people who hang around,
they're people who actually havevalue that should hang around.
(26:37):
So what can you learn from beingfired? It's A, I wasn't good
enough.
Why wasn't I good enough? B, Ineed to improve. I'm not good
enough and therefore I need toimprove on x y and z. So I've
been fired many times, many manytimes even while being a
solopreneur, even if I have manydifferent clients, clients still
(26:59):
fire me all the time. Andsometimes it's a dollars and
cents issue.
It's hey we can't come to anagreement from a dollars and
cents perspective. But othertimes, and it hasn't happened
much recently, but when I wasyounger, it was that hey you're
just the quality, we talked alot about quality here. The
(27:20):
quality isn't good enough oryou're not good enough. And so
being fired I think is a reallyimportant part of the journey
because it'll force you then bethat salesperson, to try to get
more clients, to try to keepthat. It can be a traumatic
event and I remember I got firedonce from a big client and I
(27:43):
basically talked about changingmy pricing strategy earlier, but
I also said I need to have asmany clients as possible.
I can't be dependent on one ortwo clients. I need to have 10
clients or 12 clients. So ittaught me that because I
remember somebody told me, theysaid the biggest problem I see
with these solopreneurs,solopreneurship has been going
(28:06):
on forever, and somebody who Irespect, somebody who does very
well, is successful in businesstold me, they said the biggest
problem that I see is thatpeople, they only get one
client, they're dependent onthat one client, they lose that
one client and then they findthemselves unemployed and I
don't wanna see that happen toyou. And literally three months
(28:26):
after he told me that, that didhappen to me. And that was
during my first year inbusiness.
And I said hey that's a goodlesson to learn. I was like 24,
25 at the time, and I saidthat's a good lesson to learn so
now I'm gonna expand. Becauseit's easy to get complacent
whether you're working a fulltime job, one stream of income,
or you call yourself asolopreneur with one big client.
It's easy to become complacentand I learned through that
(28:50):
experience and said, I'm notjust gonna get more clients, I'm
gonna start a second businessand I'm gonna buy real estate
properties and I'm gonna get areal estate license and save
money on taxes. Because savingmoney on taxes is also kind of
an income stream because that'smoney that you get to keep in
your pocket.
So now I'd say solopreneurshipis just like one out of five
things that I do. And it'sbecause of that PTSD that I got
(29:12):
from getting fired or being laidoff. And I feel like this
specific segment is so importantbecause right now there are mass
layoffs and mass firingshappening all around The United
States, whether in the privatesector or in the government. And
what people don't talk enoughabout, they talk about the
empathetic part and theemotional part of it, but what
they don't talk enough about isfirings, layoffs, this has been
(29:34):
going on since the beginning ofhumankind. And what we need to
do is teach our children, I havetwo young boys, We need to teach
our children what I just saidearlier, not to become dependent
on any one specific source ofincome.
I actually saw the statisticsthat forty percent of US
citizens will get fired. Fortypercent will get fired at least
(29:58):
once over their career. Sothat's quite a lot I mean,
that's almost half thepopulation that is gonna face a
layoff or a firing. And men getfired more than women or men get
laid off more than women. So ifyou're a man, the number
skyrockets to something likesixty percent of your chances of
(30:18):
being laid off or fired, atleast once during your lifetime.
So it's going to happen, I hateto break it to people who say oh
I've never gotten fired, I'venever gotten laid off. It's
gonna happen, especially theolder that you get the higher
your salary. If it hasn'thappened to you yet, is going to
happen and what we need to beteaching is these skills.
Because if you have skills, wetalked about being a
(30:40):
solopreneur, the way that youget clients, the way that you
get business is by developingcertain skills, showing off
those skills, and charging forthose skills because those
skills create value. And this iscompletely lost in all the mumbo
jumbo of layoffs and all thatother stuff because somebody who
can who can create value and whoprovides value will always have
(31:03):
a job.
Always have a job.
Carly Ries (31:05):
So Joe, he said if it hasn't happened, it could
happen to you. So, just tell mewhat I need to do to not let it
happen to me. Well, so it soundslike you you have the no
regrets, all opportunities kindof mentality with all of it.
They're all educational moments.But if there was something you
(31:26):
could have changed in the past,what would you have changed that
other solopreneurs can learnfrom?
Naresh Vissa (31:31):
Well, I brought up the pricing. That's number one.
Number two, I'll bring up somelegal things. You definitely
wanna read legal contracts whenyou get into them. If you don't
have legal contracts, you wantthem in place. even if that
means going on chat GPT, gettingchat GPT to put together a legal
contract for you, or downloadinga template, you absolutely want
that because when you're asolopreneur you don't have a
(31:51):
legal department, you don't havea safety net or a lifeline
looking out for you and Ibrought up legal issues that I
had earlier. And it's simplythose legal issues are because I
created my own contracts withoutactually getting a lawyer to
read over them.
Joe Rando (32:07):
Yeah. It's interesting with ChatGPT and
contracts. I'm nervous advisingit without a review because I've
seen ChatGPT go off the deepend. You know?
And so it's a little bit like,you know, I've tried it just to
see what it would do. I had tocreate a a residential lease for
Massachusetts, and it lookedpretty good, honestly. And I
(32:27):
know a little bit about leasingOkay. Because I came out of the
real estate business. So, yeah,with respect to ChatGPT and
contracts, you gotta be carefulbecause it does hallucinate
sometimes.
So better than nothing. I'vealways said, you know, you're
better off having a contractthan not having a contract, but
just be a little careful.
Carly Ries (32:44):
Yes. Well, so many good tips of nuggets of wisdom
in this conversation. Naresh, Idon't want to end this call. I
feel like we have so many morethings that we could cover, but
we ask all of our guests thisquestion. What is your favorite
quote about success?
Naresh Vissa (33:00):
It's a quote from Thomas Jefferson who was one of
my favorite presidents.
I can answer your question headon, but I just wanna talk about
Tom Thomas Jefferson reallyquickly because he was actually
a solopreneur. And how was he asolopreneur before he became
president? Our presidents, whenthis nation was founded, they
(33:22):
were renaissance men. BenFranklin who did not become
president, never tried to becomepresident, but he was one of our
founding fathers.
He invented the stove. Heinvented, the lightning rod. He
invented so many you can find somany more things that he he was
basically an inventor and hehelped lead us to independence.
In Thomas Jefferson's case, heinvented many things. He was a
(33:45):
prolific writer.
He was, obviously super smartand he invented the swivel
chair. I think one of you issitting in a swivel chair if you
can roll around. That's becauseof Thomas Jefferson. And so, I
bring up Thomas Jeffersonbecause he's had my favorite
quote on success which is, Ifind that the harder I work, the
more luck I seem to have. And hewas somebody who works
(34:07):
tirelessly, would justconstantly work and work and
opportunities kept coming hisway.
And people would say, oh you'resuch a lucky person to become
president. You're so lucky tohave invented this. And he said,
it's not luck. It's just me justconstantly working and working
and most of the stuff like thepresidency, like being a part of
the founding fathership, Thathappened because those
(34:29):
opportunities came his waybecause of his hard work. It's
not like he was just obviouslythere was no TV back then, but
it's not like whatever theequivalent would be to just
sitting at home and twiddlinghis thumbs and then somebody
came to him and said, hey whydon't you write the declaration
of independence?
That's absolutely not how ithappened. He was just a tiresome
constant worker.
Carly Ries (34:47):
Oh great quote and I love how you tied it back. Well
if people want to learn moreabout you, where can they find
you?
Naresh Vissa (34:53):
Nareshvissa.com, Nareshvissa.com. And my company
is called Krish Media andMarketing. It's an online
digital media and marketingagency. It's
Krishmediamarketing.com.
Carly Ries (35:07):
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming on
this show today. We reallyappreciate your time. And
listeners, thank you so much fortuning in. Please share this
episode with a friend, subscribeon your favorite platform, and
leave that five star review, andwe will see you next time.
You may be going solo inbusiness, but that doesn't mean
you're alone. In fact, millionsof people are in your shoes,
(35:29):
running a one person businessand 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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