226. Why Human Connection Is Your Most Important Marketing Tactic As A Solopreneur

After nine years of collaborating virtually, Carly and Joe finally met face-to-face at the INBOUND conference in San Francisco. The sessions were buzzing with AI talk, but Carly and Joe zeroed in on what really matters for solopreneurs: marketing strategy that puts people first.

In this episode, they unpack why human connection is more powerful than any algorithm, how trust fuels business growth, and why a solid strategy beats chasing every shiny new tactic. Whether it’s AI Engine Optimization or grassroots networking, you’ll learn how to cut through the noise and build marketing that actually works for solopreneurs.

Important Takeaways From The Episode

Why is marketing strategy more important than tactics for solopreneurs?
Because tactics change constantly. New platforms, AI tools, and algorithms come and go, but if you have a clear strategy, knowing who you serve, what your brand stands for, and how you build trust, you can adapt to any trend. Strategy is your foundation, tactics are just the tools you plug in along the way.

How does AI impact solopreneur marketing?
AI is creating noise in the marketplace, making it harder for people to know what’s authentic. The good news? That actually gives solopreneurs an edge. Solopreneurs have always relied on real human connection and trust to grow their businesses, and those skills are now more valuable than ever. AI can support your work by handling repetitive tasks, but it should never replace your strategy or your voice.

What are the key steps to building an effective solopreneur marketing strategy?
It comes down to five essentials:

1. Build trust.
2. Create resonance.
3. Establish desire.
4. Inspire action.
5. Repeat the process.

This loop ensures your marketing always stays people-centered, no matter the trends.

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
In this episode, we share why marketing strategy,

(00:02):
not tactics, is the foundationevery solo business needs, how
AI is shifting the landscapeback to human connection, and
five simple steps to createmarketing that builds trust and
drives action. So if you've everwondered how to adapt to the
fast changing world of AIwithout losing your voice or
your audience, this conversationis for you. And if you tune in
on YouTube, and I guess you'llhear this in the audio as well,

(00:23):
you'll see this is a specialepisode unlike any other. You're
listening to The AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for
anyone on the solo businessjourney, whether you're just
toying with the idea, takingyour first bold step, or have
been running your own show foryears and want to keep growing,
refining, and thriving. I'mCarly Ries and along with my

(00:44):
cohost, Joe Rando, we're yourguides through the crazy but
awesome world of being a companyof one.
As part of LifeStarr, a digitalhub dedicated to all things
solopreneurship, we help peopledesign business that align with
their life's ambitions so theycan work to live, not live to
work. If you're looking for aget rich quick scheme, this is
not the place for you. But ifyou want real world insights

(01:06):
from industry experts, lessonsfrom the successes and stumbles
of fellow solopreneurs, andpractical strategies for
building and sustaining abusiness you love, you're in the
right spot. Because flying soloin business doesn't mean you're
alone. No matter where you arein your journey, we've got your
back.

Joe Rando (02:05):
Hey, Carly. I'm sorry for the background noise. I'm
calling in from Inbound, whichis in San Francisco this year,
and I just wanted to make surewe got in and did our podcast.
But I'm in the hotel lobby, andit's a little noisy.

Carly Ries (02:22):
Wait, Joe. That is so weird. I am also in my hotel
lobby at Inbound.

Joe Rando (02:26):
No way.

Carly Ries (02:26):
We should meet the first time.

Joe Rando (02:28):
Let's definitely meet up for the first time.

Carly Ries (02:30):
What? Oh my gosh. We are doing this podcast together
in person, you guys. Joe and Ihave been working together for
nine years off and on, and we'venever met until this week in
person.
It is crazy. We are sharing thisscreen. Inbound is great this
year. We actually can't wait toshare all of our knowledge that

(02:52):
we've had that we've receivedover. I was gonna say the past
few days. We're just about tostart day two.

Joe Rando (02:57):
Two, but my brain is exploding. I'm telling you. I'm
like, it's been yes I told mywife yesterday was worth coming
just for one session that wewent to. Game changing stuff,
things that I think can reallybenefit, at least a lot of our
solopreneurs, if not all. And,we're gonna be sharing all this

(03:18):
at our next Solopreneur SuccessSessions, which if I was not
completely jet lagged, I wouldremember the date and time, but
I'll get back to you on that.

Carly Ries (03:27):
We'll put that in the show notes. But, yeah, day
one was crazy. We've learned somuch. We are gonna do some
podcast episodes as well.
We released, re released thetwenty twenty four Inbound Recap
last week. So if you wannalisten to that, you can because
all that information is stillrelevant. We will be sharing our
experience. But it's just beenso fun to meet up with you as
well. You're taller than Ithought you would be.

Joe Rando (03:49):
Taller. Okay. you know, most people say I'm bigger
than they thought, but, Taller.anyway, it's been fantastic to
meet you for the first timeafter 2016. It's, like, nine
years.
But it's just the world we livein now. there are people that
you get to know and become veryclose friends with that you

(04:12):
never actually see in person fornine years.

Carly Ries (04:15):
It's so crazy. I was talking to my husband before he
got off the elevator, I waslike, I'm so nervous. Do I
stand? Do I sit? What do I do?
And he was like, you talk to Joemore than most people. Why are
you so nervous? But just it's sonatural, as we would have
guessed. But you guys, we alsohave not forgotten that we are
in the midst of our solopreneursuccess cycle series in light of

(04:38):
our book coming out 10/06/2025,Solopreneur Business for
Dummies, which kinda covers thesolopreneur not kind of, it
covers the solopreneur successcycle.

Joe Rando (04:47):
Yeah. In detail.

Carly Ries (04:48):
Yeah. And last week, we re released the overview. And
so we're diving now back intothe the planning phase, which we
had to split into feels like agazillion pieces because there's
just so much that goes intoplanning. But today, I just
wanna give a brief overview ofmarketing strategy, seems so
relevant with Inbound. And also,I feel so validated after just

(05:10):
day one at Inbound and, thestate of marketing for people.
I kept listening to sessions inthe lens of solopreneurs. And I
was like, oh my gosh, this bookspeaks to what they're speaking
to. Because the reason for that,even though we wrote the book
before Inbound started andbefore all these trends that
we're learning about are comingout, is because we lead with

(05:30):
strategy before tactics. And Ithink if you always have a sound
strategy, you can pivot withtechnology. You can pivot with
AI because you have a solidunderstanding of who your
audience is, who your brand is,who you are as your voice.
We talked about that in previousepisodes just defining your
branding and messaging. And ifyou can nail down all those

(05:50):
pieces, you can pivot with thetrends in technology.

Joe Rando (05:54):
Well, absolutely 100% true, but the other aspect of
that that you mentioned, but Ithink that has been really,
really leaned into in thisInbound conference is that it's
people first now. AI has had thekind of opposite impact that you
might have thought, you know,just kind of, pondering the
concept. It's like we are notconvinced by anything anymore,

(06:17):
video, audio, but if it's realpeople, if we know it's real
people, that's what people arecraving. And we've been saying
for a long time now that formost solopreneurs it's not about
search engine optimization. It'snot about, inbound content
marketing.
It's about building directconnections with people and
networking and getting to knowpeople that then come to trust

(06:39):
you. And that's just it that'snow true exponentially from what
it was maybe five years ago.

Carly Ries (06:47):
No. Absolutely. And it's funny because we kind of
follow I don't wanna saymethodology. That sounds so,
stoke. I don't know.
But we do, we were inspired byJay Acunzo. We've had him on the
show. He's one of those peoplewho's always just like cut the
fluff, get back to the story,speak to your audience. And so

(07:07):
we kind of put together basedoff of some of his, thought
process as well as our own,like, essential steps that
solopreneurs can take for aneffective marketing strategy,
which is build trust, createresonance, establish desire,
inspire action, and then wash,rinse, repeat. And it's funny
because I can say this out loudnow.

(07:29):
Inbound just, developed amarketing loop. And it's funny
because looking at our fivesteps, it's basically a loop.
It's do that and then repeat. Dothat and repeat. But again, at
the heart of it, it's that humanconnection.
And I think that is many expertsthink that that's how you
connect. You get a hold of youraudience now. It's no longer

(07:52):
just an SEO player, analytics,or this. Like, we've done that.
We've exhausted a lot oftraditional playbook steps that
we've discussed and that they'vebeen discussing at the
conference.
And it's time to kinda go backto the beginning and just
establish who you are. Once youknow who you are, once you know
who your audience is and putthose steps in place, that's

(08:14):
when you can dive into thetactics. Do you want, AEO is a
new thing that they've beentalking about instead of SEO,
AEO, the AI engine optimization,which is a tactic. But the thing
that I wanna make clear forsolopreneurs that's different
from all the marketing adviceout there is that how
solopreneurs attract leads is sodifferent from big companies,

(08:34):
and they really do need to honein on that one on one
connection. So even though AEOis a tactic that they can
certainly start implementing,for solopreneurs, it still just
goes back to the basics.
Tell your family and friendswhat you do so they can be your
lowest hanging fruit. Getinvolved in local groups. Have
one on one communication onsocial media. Don't just post it

(08:55):
and forget it. Like actuallyinteract and build these
relationships.
Again, nothing has changed forus because of the strategy that
we recommend. But it's justreally doubling down on that
human connection then figuringout the tactics that will work
best for your business based offof that.

Joe Rando (09:10):
You know, it's one of the things that I've been saying
about AI is that it's almosttaking us back in time. You
know, until the nineteenthcentury, the only things that we
could rely on for informationwere basically handwritten by
humans. It was you know,something written down,

(09:32):
something something that theypainted. And then we developed
photography. We developed audiorecording.
And then, of course, videorecording and we documented
things. And there was someability to manipulate, but it
was pretty minimal. we couldpretty much trust you know, if
you had a film of somebodysaying something, could pretty
much say, well, they must'vedone that. It's out the window.

(09:54):
And now we're back to prenineteenth century where it's
all about trust again. It's allabout who you trust and who you
don't, because you can't trustanything you see anymore. It's
getting so good now. Sosolopreneurs in a sense have an
advantage now because they'vealways had to kind of work that
way.
They've never been able to say,well, you know, we're a multi
billion dollar corporation. It'salways been about building one

(10:17):
on one trust with people thatare your customers. And
companies are gonna have tolearn how to do this. These big
companies have not been focusedhere. And as solopreneurs, we
have that down.
That's what we do. So it's areal opportunity to, gain ground
because, you're a number ofsteps ahead of a lot of these
bigger companies that you mightbe competing with.

Carly Ries (10:39):
Yeah. Absolutely. But that's all I have for today.
Just a reminder that AI is atool. It's a tactic.
It is not your strategy. So nailthat down first. And, we're so
excited to share everything elsethat we've been learning this
week.

Joe Rando (10:51):
I'll say one more thing about AI, because it's
obviously all that's beingtalked about. Not all, but a lot
of what's being talked abouthere. And that is think about AI
like a rise and tide. If you'relet's say you're a copywriter.
Now all of a sudden AI is doingwhat you do. Well, how do you
build on top of that? How willyou build your business in a way

(11:12):
that taking advantage of that AIis something that that you can
do. And if you think of it thatway, maybe you become a really
good prompt engineer for doingcopywriting, in which case now
you can do much more work thansomebody that's just using AI
straight out of the box. And sothere's just ways to take what's

(11:33):
happening and changing and seemsto be approaching on your work
and take away some of thepainful stuff and some of the
boring stuff and try to do moreof the cool stuff.
So just a thought on that.

Carly Ries (11:46):
Love it. Well, listeners, we are, in our next
episode, we'll be talking aboutthe sales process as part of the
solopreneur success cycle. Butthat's what we have today. As
always, thank you so much fortuning in. Leave that five star
review.
Share this episode with afriend. Subscribe on your
favorite podcast platform. Andwe'll see you next time. And
we'll be virtual again. oh, no.
Not next time. Next time we willbe. Woo. Have a good one. You

(12:10):
may be going solo in business,but that doesn't mean you're
alone.
In fact, millions of people arein your shoes, running a one
person business and figuring itout as they go. So why not
connect with them and learn fromeach other's successes and
failures? At LifeStarr, we'recreating a one person business
community where you can go tomeet and get advice from other
solopreneurs. Be sure to join inon the conversations at

(12:31):
community.lifestarr.com.