232. The Solopreneur’s Shortcut to Smarter Decisions

Making changes in your business is exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming when everything seems important at once. In this episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, Carly and Joe walk you through the PRIORITY Framework, a practical tool to help you decide which changes are worth your time, energy, and resources. From spotting critical survival moves to weighing risks, opportunities, and alignment with your vision, this framework will help you cut through the noise and focus on what really matters.

If you’ve ever felt stuck staring at a never-ending list of “should-dos,” this conversation will show you how to turn it into a clear, strategic plan.

Popular Questions and Answers From The Episode

How do I know which business changes to tackle first?

Start with survival. If something threatens the health of your business, like a major client loss or a broken system, it automatically goes to the top of your list. Joe calls this the “Peril” step in the PRIORITY framework. Handle what keeps the doors open before anything else.

What if I have a change in mind, but I don’t have the skills or resources to pull it off?

Then it’s not a priority...yet. Implementation and resources are key filters in the framework. If you can’t realistically execute the change now, put it on a “someday/maybe” list instead of draining energy and momentum.

How do I avoid wasting time on changes that don’t move my business forward?

Ask whether the change creates real opportunity and aligns with your vision. Will it grow revenue, reduce stress, or bring you closer to your long-term goals? If it’s just a shiny object, it might feel exciting, but it won’t serve your bigger picture.

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All you have to do is pre-order our new book: Solopreneur Business for Dummies.

When we first went solo, we thought we could just Google our way through it. But the advice out there?

It was built for startups with teams and money, not someone trying to do it all themselves. We kept thinking: “There’s gotta be a better way.”

So we made one. LifeStarr Premier is the system we wish we had back then: the tools, the strategy, the community, all in one place.

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
When you're running a solo business, spotting what

(00:02):
needs to change is one thing,but deciding which changes to
make is an entirely differentchallenge. In this episode of
The Aspiring Solopreneur, webreak down a simple but powerful
tool, the priority framework.From tackling business
threatening issues first toweighing resources, risks, and
opportunities, this frameworkhelps you cut through the noise
and focus only on changes thatare truly worth your time. If

(00:25):
you've ever felt overwhelmed bya list of should do's and
wondered where to start, thisconversation will give you the
clarity and confidence to moveforward without stalling your
momentum. So tune in to learnhow to sort the urgent from the
optional and walk away with aprocess you can use to make
smarter business decisionstoday.
You're listening to The AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for

(00:48):
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
cohost, Joe Rando, we're yourguides through the crazy but
awesome world of being a companyof one. As part of LifeStarr, a

(01:08):
digital hub dedicated to allthings solopreneurship, we help
people design businesses thatalign with their life's
ambitions so they can work tolive, not live to work. If
you're looking for a get richquick scheme, this is not the
place for you. But if you wantreal world insights from
industry experts, lessons fromthe successes and stumb stumbles
of fellow solopreneurs, andpractical strategies for

(01:28):
building and sustaining abusiness you love, you're in the
right spot.
Because flying solo in businessdoesn't mean you're alone. No
matter where you are in yourjourney, we've got your back. So

(02:41):
Joe, we the past few episodes,we've been talking about the
improving phase of thesolopreneur success cycle. And
today, we're gonna actually talkabout deciding which changes to
make once you've started kindalooking at your business, seeing
what's working, seeing what'snot. And hence you have a lot of
choices to make about what youneed to prioritize.

(03:01):
So how do you decide whichchanges to make once you know
you have changes to make?

Joe Rando (03:06):
Yeah. you know, you probably are gonna have more
changes than you're gonna wannatry to make at your business at
one time. Because, when you'remaking these kinds of changes,
you're not doing work, and thatusually impacts your revenue. So
carving out some time to do thistype of stuff is the kind of
thing where you wanna be verystrategic about it because you
only wanna do the things thatare really worth doing and worth

(03:28):
losing that productivity timefor. So we came up with
something called the priorityframework.
And the priority framework. thepriority stands for something.
And this is a time honoredtradition, of creating acronyms
around things. So fulldisclosure, I'm not good at

(03:49):
this, so I use ChatGPT to comeup with the acronyms. And,
anyway, let's walk throughpriority.
So it starts with p for peril.And we mentioned this in the
last episode. If it's criticalto survival, don't wait. If this
something that's gonna destroyyour business, just get on it

(04:09):
now and forget about all theother changes. So those go to
the top of the list. Resources.do you have the money, the time,
and the energy to do this now?Because if you don't, you're
gonna start it and not finish itor just waste time.
So if it's something that's toobig to take on right now, you're
gonna wanna put it on a kind ofa someday maybe list, we call

(04:31):
it. Just put it on a list forlater. maybe it's gonna not be
important anymore. You don'tknow how those things are gonna
go. Then the I is forimplementation, and the idea is,
do you have the skills and thetools to make it happen?
Or if you don't, can yououtsource it to someone that
can? Is there someone that cando it? Can you afford to pay
them? These kinds of questions.You know, a change is only good

(04:53):
if you can actually make ithappen.
So if you don't have the skills,then that's another nonstarter
if you can't get somebody tohelp you. Opportunity. What will
this move forward? What's itgonna do for the business?
And this is the kind of thingwhere you have to ask yourself,
given what it's gonna take to dothis, is the opportunity really

(05:15):
there? Is it gonna make therevenue grow? Is it gonna reduce
stress, make me more effective,do something to improve my life
and my goals? That's kind ofthing you need to think about,
for that step.
And then r is for relevance.Does it align with the overall
vision you have for thebusiness? Because there are lots
of cool things to do that couldbe helpful. But if they're not

(05:37):
aligning with kind of whereyou're trying to take the
business, what you see thebusiness, going to next, maybe
it's not worth the energy or thetime or the money.
I is for impact risk. If you dothis, could something bad
happen? You know, could thiscause confusion? Could it break
a system?
Could, it cause customers toleave? Could it do something bad

(06:00):
for your brand? You know,there are just these kinds of
things that can happen when youmake, significant changes to
your business. You wanna thinkthose through. The t is for,
threats of execution.
When you're executing this,could something go wrong while
making the change that you wouldthen wanna reverse back? Is it

(06:21):
reversible? So if you're goingin and making major changes to
your email marketing system andor maybe you're changing email
marketing systems, and it justdoesn't work the way you wanted
it to or something's reallywrong, can you go back? Do you
wanna keep that old emailmarketing system in place until
you're convinced the new oneworks, etcetera?

(06:41):
So thinking through thosethreats of execution. And then
last, the y is just for making adecision, and there are three
possible decisions about anygiven change. One is, yes. I'm
gonna do it now. I'm gonna do itlater.
Or this is just a bad idea, andit's going in the trash. I'm not
gonna do it at all. So yes, no,or not at all. And that is the
kind of thing that will let youpair down your list. So this is

(07:04):
only the first step of pairingdown. You're gonna pair that
down. And once you're done withthat, then you're gonna look at
these and say, okay. Now I'vegot this paired down list that
I'm gonna try to take on now.But you still gotta think
through whether it makes senseto do all of these changes.
You might not have the time orthe energy. And you also wanna
step out and say, hey. You know,this looks good on paper. Is my

(07:29):
heart in doing this right now?
Do I really wanna do this? Andyou might look at a change that,
checks off all the boxes on thepriority framework, but you go,
you know, just not into thisright now. I don't know, might
be a reason you can't explain,but you do wanna trust your gut
with these things becausesometimes it's just not the
right thing for you to do. Youknow, talk to people about the
changes. Ask customers or,friends and, other people in

(07:53):
your solopreneur community. Whatdo you think about this? Did
this make sense? And then as youlook through the list, see, how
much of these can I do? I liketo sort them in priority order,
like what's the most importantto least, and then go down and
say, how much can I do and thenstop?
And as you cut off, you know,you may have something that's

(08:14):
high effort, and there'ssomething beyond it that's lower
efforts, not as high priority,but you might be able to squeeze
that one in for this phase. Soit's just one of those things
where, you have to think throughthis stuff and then be very
careful about what you decide tochange at one time because it
can get a little tricky. Andlastly, as you're doing this,
think what the order that mightmake the most sense to do

(08:36):
because there may be somesystems dependent. You know, if
I'm gonna change my emailmarketing, maybe I wanna first,
change my website around so thatit integrates with the new email
marketing system or something.who knows?
But there are just differentways that you might do this that
make more sense than others. Andthinking these through and
organizing before you startgoing in and willy nilly making

(08:58):
changes will lead to a lot moresuccessful outcomes. So that's
that.

Carly Ries (09:04):
Yeah. Absolutely. I love acronyms. It's so funny how
helpful that could be to retaininformation. So well played
ChatGPt, well played Joe andit's ChatGPT.
Well done. Well, Joe, before weend the episode, we said in a
previous episode that we'regonna start thanking people for
their five star reviews andgiving them shout outs. And so,

(09:25):
Simi O'Brien, thank you so muchfor your recent five star
review. You said, our show is amust listen for any solo
business owner navigating themessy middle of building
something meaningful. I alwayswalk away with at least one
thing I can apply right away.
That means the world for to us.Listeners, if you want us to
give if you want us to give youa shout out, there you go. Don't

(09:46):
forget to leave that five starreview. And for everybody else,
please subscribe to our show onyour favorite podcast platform
including YouTube. And sharethis episode with a friend, and
we'll see you next time on TheAspiring Solopreneur.
You may be going solo inbusiness, but that doesn't mean
you're alone. In fact, millionsof people are in your shoes,
running a one person businessand figuring it out as they go.

(10:08):
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.