October 15, 2025 • 26 mins
Ever hit rock bottom (physically, mentally, or in your business )and wondered how to climb back stronger?
Zachary Del Monaco has done it twice before age 25. From spinal surgery that left him relearning how to walk to rebuilding his business and relationship with his father, Zach shares what it really takes to rise again as a solopreneur.
In this powerful and personal episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, he joins Carly and Joe to talk about grit, authenticity, and the small wins that build unstoppable momentum. Get ready for an episode that’s part inspiration, part blueprint for resilience...and all heart.
Q&As from the Episode
What can solopreneurs do when their business isn’t taking off as fast as they hoped?
Zach reminds us that success often takes far longer than expected and that persistence is the differentiator. Most people quit during the slow, uncertain middle, but those who stay consistent eventually outlast the competition. His advice? Focus on small, daily wins instead of distant goals. Each mini-milestone builds momentum and confidence until those big results finally appear.
How can solopreneurs rebuild after hitting a major setback or starting from scratch?
Having faced both physical and emotional rock bottoms, Zach believes that every collapse offers a chance to rebuild stronger. Whether it’s losing a business, a partnership, or confidence, setbacks are opportunities to reassess foundations. Instead of rushing to recover, solopreneurs should focus on what they’ve learned, redefine their “why,” and rebuild with a more stable mindset and structure.
Why is authenticity such an important part of solopreneur success?
In Zach’s view, authenticity is what cuts through the noise (especially in a world where AI can make everything sound the same). He believes that people connect to real humans, not polished perfection. By being transparent about both victories and struggles, solopreneurs create genuine trust and attract audiences who want connection, not just content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carly Ries (00:00):
What does it really take to make it as a
(00:02):
solopreneur? In this episode,Zachary Del Monaco gets honest
about hitting rock bottom twice,and how rebuilding his spine,
his mindset, and even hisrelationship with his dad forged
unshakable resilience.Resilience. We dig into the
power of micro wins, nonnegotiables, and thinking 10
times bigger than yourenvironment, plus why
(00:22):
authenticity, not AI copy andpaste, is your unfair advantage.
You'll hear how to reverseengineer a purpose driven
business from the life you want,shortcut years with smart
mentorship, and keep showing upwhen motivation fades.
So if you need a shot of beliefand a blueprint you can use
today, then keep listening.You're listening to The Aspiring
(00:42):
Solopreneur, the podcast foranyone on the solo business
journey, whether you're justtoying with the idea, taking
your first bold step, or havebeen running your own show for
years and want to keep growing,refining, and thriving. I'm
Carly Ries, and along with mycohost, Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
(01:02):
of one. As part of LifeStarr, adigital hub dedicated to all
things solopreneurship, we helppeople design businesses that
align with their life'sambitions so they can work to
live, not live to work. Ifyou're looking for a get rich
quick scheme, this is not theplace for you.
But if you want real worldinsights from industry experts,
lessons from the successes andstumbles of fellow solopreneurs,
(01:23):
and practical strategies forbuilding and sustaining a
business you love, you're in theright spot. Because flying solo
in business doesn't mean you'realone. No matter where you are
in your journey, we've got yourback. Zach, we are so excited to
have you here today. I feel likeyou have such a story to tell.
And it's funny because you're apretty young dude, but you have
(01:43):
so much experience and so muchlife experience under your belt
for that matter, not just inbusiness. But before we dive
into our questions, we have toask you, what do you wish you
knew before starting out as asolopreneur?
Zach Del Monaco (01:56):
That's a great question. There's a lot, but if
I had to pick one, it'd be thatI wish I knew that it would take
more attention, more focus toachieve the goals that I had,
and it would take longer in theprocess. But in doing so, that
I'd be able to outlast everyonethat I was competing with. I
(02:18):
think that a lot of people startout in a business or in
something that they're wantingto build. They think that
they're going to be this hugesuccess so quickly, or at least
that's what I thought.
It takes 10 times more effortthan I would have ever thought,
and it takes 10 times more timein that process, but over that
process you reshape, you getcreative, and you continue
(02:41):
building. But I feel like inthat up and down spiral is when
a lot of people lose that quoteunquote motivation to keep on
going.
Joe Rando (02:49):
Yeah. have this running joke love, and I've said
it about 10 times on thispodcast, but it was a banner I
saw. It was like a meme, and itsaid, we do this not because it
is easy. And then it's smallprint that says, but because we
thought it would be easy.
But absolutely sticking with itand getting through that. If you
outlast the competition, you cansucceed. But you're so right. we
(03:12):
heard yesterday for the firsttime in a podcast, a woman say,
well, it was actually a loteasier than I expected. And I'm
like, what?
Carly Ries (03:20):
who are you, and what did you have for breakfast?
Yeah. Zach, you're right. Youneed that resilience. And I'm
gonna expose you a little bitand piggyback off of that.
You have already hit rockbottom, my friend. And I want to
hear that story, but I alsowanna know how that redefined
how you show up in your businesstoday.
Zach Del Monaco (03:42):
Yeah. Great question. So actually I speak
about one rock bottom, but I'venever said this before. I'll
give you guys two rock bottomsthat I've hit, which is
interesting. The first rockbottom that I hit was in my
spinal surgery where when I wasyoung, I was growing up, I was
really really short.
I had the highest voice in mygrade, I was very very
unconfident, couldn't speak infront of anyone. And the next
(04:04):
thing you know, I shot up almostto six feet. But because of
that, my back couldn'tcompensate. So almost it felt
like overnight, I had a 48%spinal curvature, which
collapsed half of my lung,couldn't play any sports. at the
time I was doing soccer andsurfing, and when I took my
shirt off at the beach or at thepool or go to workout, you could
(04:26):
literally see there was a humpin my back. So I went in for the
surgery, which was an eight hoursurgery, and I spent three
months prior to that building upmy muscle, really developing
myself.
And in less than eight hours,all the muscle was gone. So I
basically had to start torebuild myself. I had to relearn
(04:47):
how to walk, how to even stand,how to run, and I had to
redevelop my whole entiremindset. Because at that time, I
fell into such a deep path ofconstantly asking myself every
single day, when's the next timethat I'm gonna be able to do a
single pushup, be able to walk,be able to hang out with
friends, or even be able to goon business trips with my dad
(05:08):
like I've been doing for thepast three years. The whole
time, that six months, that oneyear was me in rock bottom
sitting with myself saying, I'veliterally been reduced to the
beginnings of where I came fromwhen I was born, and I have to
rebuild everything that I'veever created, which was, to be
(05:30):
honest with you, on brokenfoundations, which is why I say
that that was rock bottombecause it allowed me to
reanalyze my whole entire life,reanalyze who I was, what I was
doing, and why I was doing it.
And in the process, I was ableto take the lessons from that
story and be able to rebuildmyself using that as my brand.
And it's interesting because Iuse this analogy of climbing
(05:54):
Mount Everest, you get to acertain point, you think you're
at the top, and then there's alittle valley that you have to
go down to go back up. And thisis kind of similar to what I've
never shared with people, whichis after that surgery I was
building, I thought I was on thehighest of highs of life. I was
with my dad building father sonduo. We're going to take over
(06:15):
the world.
Then something happened in ourbusiness where we started to
separate. It started to feellike it got neglected, and
something came in between us.And it was at that moment where
my relationship for twenty two,twenty three years of my life
with my father, like, ride ordie with him, I honestly didn't
(06:38):
even wanna be in the same roomwith him, which kills me to even
say. I was even thinking about Iwent to church one night
thinking about I was gonna movecross country to get away from
everything, which hurts me toeven say it. So that rock bottom
at that time was in business.
And moving forward, I was ableto start to rebuild that trust
(07:02):
with him, rebuild thatconnection with him over time
slowly because he had to get toa better place within himself,
within his mind. And I had toget to a better place saying,
you know what? I can actuallystill trust you. You're not
quote unquote what I felt inthat moment abandoning me. And
then when we were able to slowlymove past that, the connection
(07:22):
between myself with that surgeryand the connection between my
father and I moving past thatstruggle in business, that
difficulty, is what built us tothis day, to the point where I
truly believe nothing right nowcan have any momentum in
stopping what we're creatingbecause we're starting
basically, I'm starting fromscratch again.
Carly Ries (07:44):
So let me ask you, because you are resilient. You
overcome these obstacles, but itwasn't like you woke up from
surgery and the next day youwere like, I'm on top of the
world. And same with everythingwith your dad. my assumption is
that you had to take baby stepsand you had small milestones
that you would reach, whether itwas walking That's not a small
(08:04):
milestone.
But like, these little thingseach step of the way that kept
the momentum going. So how cansolopreneurs take the story of
yours and find those minimilestones on what may seem like
an insurmountable journey forthem right now?
Zach Del Monaco (08:22):
Yeah. This is really interesting. So I'm
actually working with one of mycoaches, his name's Tim, on the
story of how it went frompossible to impossible back to
possible. And that's one of thethings that we're talking about.
I have this friend, his name'sJames, and he said this quote
that really hit me, it's, in thebeginning when you're starting
(08:42):
something up, your successes aregonna be small, but they create
a momentum for bigger successes.
And those small successes mightnot be the monetary ones that
you're thinking of. Instead, itmight be the knowledge that you
gain, the skills that you gain,what you're able to take on and
move forward and teach otherpeople. So when starting out, I
would highly suggest thateveryone focuses on where
(09:05):
they're where they wanna go,what that goal is, and then
focusing on those small winsthat will ultimately for me
surmount into those bigger wins.So for example, waking up. I'm
gonna go work out because to me,when I work out, I tame my body,
I tame my mind.
Now I'm in the mindset to gothroughout the day that I did
(09:26):
the hardest thing, was going tothe gym. Okay, next thing I
wanna do if I'm building out mybrand, I'm gonna have to make
some content. Okay, amazing. Wecreated x y z pieces of content.
Now we're gonna post them up.
Amazing. We did that. That'sanother one. Now I have to send
out 10 emails. I have to do 10calls.
Okay. Amazing. Let's get themdone. Bam. Whether they answered
(09:47):
or didn't, we got them done.
Now over a specific amount oftime, you're gonna build more
trust, more credibility, moreconfidence in yourself because
you're doing that. Those big winthose small wins for me is what
ultimately created these bigwins that I have in my life
right now. It's what I set out,I created basically re
engineered the goal and then reengineered what steps I have to
(10:11):
do in order to hit that. Andeach day I had these non
negotiables. No matter whathappens, you are getting these
non negotiables done because inthe end it's gonna help you
achieve this goal.
Carly Ries (10:22):
I love that. I think that's such great advice. And
just from a practicalstandpoint, but also just
listening to you talk, you'revery personal. Like you're
transparent, you're Zachary onthe screen, but I'm like, but
can I call you Zach? Because Ijust feel like I've known you
for longer than ten minutes.
What role do you thinkauthenticity plays, not only in
(10:43):
your success, but success forsolopreneurs?
Zach Del Monaco (10:47):
I think authenticity is sometimes hard
to come by nowadays, but I thinkit's the key to really building
something that is massivelyimpactful and having that
connection with others. Becauseto me, it's really easy to see
all in authenticity, and I getdisassociated. I'm not attracted
(11:12):
to it. Like, you could reallyfeel it over the screen and when
you're talking to someone, andit doesn't feel good. So to me
one of the things that Iactually had to learn in this
whole process, which I'm stilldoing to this day, is almost
complete, not almost, completeauthenticity.
Complete vulnerability, openingup and sharing with people, and
I really feel that that's one ofthe ways that I'm able to
differentiate myself fromeveryone else in this industry
(11:36):
or in this life because eachperson's different, so why are
we trying to act like everyoneelse? If we're able to just be
as authentic as possible and hitthat energy level, that
vibration if you wanna go there,people are gonna be able to feel
it and really connect more withyou. And then I believe in that
connection with you, whateveryour business is, whatever your
brand is, whatever your surfaceor your product is, they're most
(11:58):
likely going to be buying it inthat case because of they know
who you are and they have astrong connection with you
because everyone has the samething that they're building. The
only difference is you.
Joe Rando (12:09):
Question. Do you think it's gotten worse with AI?
Do you think AI is making thislack of authenticity worse?
Zach Del Monaco (12:15):
Yeah, I do. I think people, don't get me
wrong, I love AI and I'mlearning how to use it, but I
think in my opinion people areusing it as a crutch too much
and not doing an eighty twenty,which is 80% taking in the
information giving it, and then20% putting your authentic touch
(12:37):
on it. I feel like people arejust lazy with it, putting
everything in, taking it out,and just sending it.
Joe Rando (12:43):
Yeah. And that's not them anymore. I's it's ChatGPT
or Gemini or whatever.
Carly Ries (12:50):
Zach, I'm curious. So you were talking about the
non negotiables in the morning,and in the past you've talked
about like becoming the mostelevated version of yourself.
And using those terms, it seemslike you have big goals and big
dreams. But not that you're notdeserving of that. You're
absolutely deserving of that andyou should have big goals and
big dreams.
But a lot of times solopreneursthink small. And I'm curious how
(13:14):
you foster and how you nurturethat kind of mentality to shoot
for the stars.
Zach Del Monaco (13:21):
Yep. So I think that was my biggest setback
early in life, is thinking waytoo small. And I blamed that on
myself, I blamed that on theenvironment that I was in, the
people that I was listening toat that time. But I think that's
one of the biggest crutches orfaults that I had and many other
people have in life, is thinkingsmall. One of the ways that I
(13:44):
was able to get past that wasactually with my father and
going to these differentbusiness events, and listening
to these entrepreneurs that Isee online aspiring to be like.
And they were basically everytime that they talked, every
time that they said something,it seemed like there was no
limitation on what they werethinking of, of what was
possible. And then I started todelve into this idea of well,
(14:07):
maybe I am going too small.Well, maybe if I do shoot for
the stars and I land short, I'llstill be further than I was than
other people. And I started togo back and forth with this
concept of thinking big versusthinking small, and I realized
that the thinking big was ableto help me expand my expand my
(14:29):
thinking. Right?
Like expand what I was doing,expand what I was sharing with
other people, and it reallyinspired me each day to get up.
It inspired me, okay, I don'tknow if I'm gonna be able to do
this, but let's try it. It kindof gave me that drive to push
forward. I'd say, especiallywhen starting a brand,
especially when starting abusiness, constantly be thinking
(14:50):
big, because everything in thisworld is going be telling you to
go small, it's not going towork, because it's other
people's limitations that are onyou. But the more that you're
able to hush that, silence that,really think big, expand your
thinking as much as probably Iknow I keep on saying this over
and over, but it's so simple yetso powerful because when you do
this, you're like, wow.
(15:11):
I heard this person talkingabout going on a private jet and
doing a $100,000 mastermind whenI was thinking about a $10,000
mastermind. Wait. A $100,000mastermind is able to be
achieved? How can I do that?Wait.
I'm thinking about touching amillion people's lives? This
person's thinking about abillion. Am I able to achieve a
(15:33):
billion people's lives? Like,impact a billion people's lives?
I don't know.
But I'm gonna try. And in theprocess of trying, I'm gonna
have to become a differentperson to do that. Okay. Now how
can I reverse engineer that?See, the whole purpose of me
saying think bigger is that youcould expand your mind, expand
what you think is possible andhow you're able to get there.
(15:55):
And then I believe, which I'malways striving to do in the end
is, who do you become in thatperson? Who do I become in that
process? And in that process, amI able to achieve quote unquote
that full potential that I haveat the end of my life?
Carly Ries (16:11):
Zach, I feel like I could just visualize you on a
TED talk stage giving thatresponse. Like I feel like I
need the pom poms or the foamfinger right now. But it's so
important that something thatsolopreneurs just struggle with
a lot is motivation andinspiration and all that. I feel
(16:31):
like you've just gave so much ofthat. But you talked about a
coach in the past during thisinterview.
You've talked about your dad.What role do you think
mentorship plays in success forsolopreneurs? Is it necessary?
Zach Del Monaco (16:46):
I absolutely think this is necessary. I
actually think that I take thisoverboard, to be honest with
you. But my idea behindmentorship is you have two
different paths in life. Onepath is let's call it path a,
plan a. Right?
Where you're going down andyou're starting at whether it's
(17:07):
15 years old, 20 years old,whatever. A decade goes by.
Okay. You learned a new skill.You started a new business.
Now another decade goes by. Youscale that. Now another decade
goes by. So you're at 40 to 50years old, you're learning all
of these things by yourselfbecause you think you have the
belief that you could do it onyour own. You don't wanna invest
in anyone.
You know how to do it. You gotit. Amazing. You're at 50. Now
(17:32):
let's flip to path b, which isover here.
You start out at 20 years old,let's say. You have a decade,
that's 30. Instead of trying itall on your own and spending ten
years to learn that one thing,that that one skill to hit that
one target, say a milliondollars in your business, you
pay someone $30,000 $50,000 andat the time you're like this how
(17:57):
is it even possible that I couldpay this? It's crazy. But you
investing in that person $50,you basically just shortcutted
that whole entire decade.
You took fifty years of thatperson's life and now you just
learned exactly their playbook,their mentality. And now say you
do that five times, fivedifferent mentors for each goal
(18:20):
that you have, you are going todo so much further in life than
you were if you didn't invest. Ibelieve that constantly
investing in yourself and inyour business are the two most
important and powerful thingsthat you can do. Because my
whole entire thing is I alwaystry and value time more than
money, so that investing thatmoney can get me back my time in
(18:43):
the future in the end. And Iwanna be able to have the
smartest, most brilliant, mostpowerful people by my side, and
to me that means investing inmentorships, investing in other
people.
The whole thing that I'm doingwith investing in these mentors
like Tim and buying these booksis just shortcutting my way,
shortcutting my time to thesuccess that I want to achieve,
(19:04):
And then when I'm able toachieve that, it's like a whole
another cycle. You just repeat,you're able to mentor other
people in the process. That'swhy I feel mentorship is so
important, especially whenyou're young, and why so many
people are held back becausethey don't understand that
simple fact.
Carly Ries (19:24):
It's such a good point, and it's amazing that you
figured that out at such a youngage. And with that, you do work
with a lot of youngentrepreneurs. What would you
say the biggest mistake is thatthey make when launching a solo
business?
Zach Del Monaco (19:37):
Oh, that's a great question. I'm gonna give
you guys a little bonus on thisone. Number one, I'd say is the
simple fact of thinking big,thinking bigger of what's
possible. The total addressablemarket of what they're able to
achieve. I think many people cutthemselves short on the
(19:57):
possibilities that they're ableto have, and then that hinders
them.
Second thing that I think isreally important for
solopreneurs is the foundations.And what I mean by that is,
because I'm in construction, Ilove talking about foundations
and blueprints. In order tobuild a massive building, you
need a solid foundation. If youdon't build a solid foundation
to start out with, you build 50stories high, next thing you
(20:21):
know, you go build the fiftyfirst, and the whole building
collapses. So being clear on whyyou're doing it, where you're
going, and being able to promoteand share that, to be able to
wake up each and every singleday, that's gonna inspire you to
go out and to build this actualentity, this vision that you
have, but it's gonna allow otherpeople to see it, connect with
(20:43):
you, relate to you, buy intowhat you have, what you're
building, and then also in theend, be able to come onto your
team, and that way you're ableto actually start building out a
team of people behind you.
Carly Ries (20:56):
Yeah. And just for clarification for people
listening, team can be like,that's not employees, that's
like contractors, anybody yousurround yourself with. That's
just too cool. And so let's saythere's somebody in their early
twenties, mid twenties, andthey're just directionless and
they don't know where to go,what do you think is the best
way to start a purpose drivenbusiness today?
Zach Del Monaco (21:19):
I'd say it's actually funny, someone asked me
this the other day and I spentlike thirty minutes thinking
about the right answer because Icould talk about this for three
hours long. I'd say it's askingyourself the question of what am
I interested in and what do Ihave a passion in? I don't know
if it's more so the love, butthe interest and passion,
(21:41):
because when you have aninterest and passion, you dive
into it. You're interested,whether you're making money or
you're not. So that's the firstpart of what you're actually
interested in, what your skillsets are.
And then the second part that Itie into this is, again reverse
engineering. So figuring out thelifestyle that you want to live
(22:02):
in the future, what you need forthat to happen. Example is the
money that you need, whereyou're going to be living, who
you're going to be surroundedby, and then reverse engineering
exactly what vehicle, so whatskill set, what interest, what
passion you have, can be thevehicle that gets you to there.
Because one of the things that Idid as a mistake was I had like
(22:27):
five different interests that Ihad, five different passions
that I had that I tried topursue, but it wasn't the
vehicle that was gonna lead meto that lifestyle that I wanted
in three years. And when it wasthree years later down the road
that I thought that I was gonnaaccomplish it with that vehicle,
I was unfulfilled and I didn'tknow why.
I got aggravated with myself.Then I realized from one of my
(22:48):
mentors that exact thing. Yougotta be able to connect the
lifestyle, the dream, the goalthat you have in the end with
the actual vehicle, or elseyou're gonna be driving with no
GPS and wondering why you'rerunning out of gas halfway
through the journey not beingable to hit the destination.
Carly Ries (23:03):
So Zach, we always end the episode asking our
guests their favorite quoteabout success, but I feel like
you just gave an original quoteabout success that I could
steal. But what is your favoritequote about success?
Zach Del Monaco (23:16):
Absolutely. I have this. I actually have this
quote written down on my phone.So I have these two . It's first
one is success is not owned,it's rented and rent is due each
day.
And the second one is from thebible, it's Proverbs, pulling
(23:39):
this up right now for you guys,Proverbs ten four. And what that
is is "a slack hand causespoverty, but the hand of the
diligent makes rich". Both ofthose quotes correlate in my
mind together saying, you haveto be able to be able and
(23:59):
willing and disciplined enoughto wake up each day, put in the
work, whatever that might be,and to continue moving forward
in order to reach whatever thatmight be for yourself, whatever
rich or wealth that might be foryourself. Those who sit back and
expect versus putting in thework will ultimately lead to
(24:19):
poverty and not be able toachieve that success that they
have. So those to me hit reallyhard because again tying back to
the beginning when I was in thathospital bed unable to move,
family having to take care ofme, I began to crumble because I
wasn't able to get up, doanything, do work.
But the moment that I was ableto start creating and putting
(24:43):
out and flowing out, I felt alot better not because I was
achieving a goal, but because Iwas in the process of giving
value and providing value out topeople.
Carly Ries (24:51):
So Zach, if people have been hearing the Rocky
soundtrack in their headsthroughout this entire
interview, where can people findyou if they wanna learn more?
Zach Del Monaco (25:00):
Yeah. Absolutely. It's Instagram at my
name, zach del monaco. Simple asthat. Basically, it's my main
channel, Instagram.
So see my content there, followthe journey there, reach out to
me any questions that you haveon that platform.
Carly Ries (25:13):
Well, thank you so so much for coming today. I have
really enjoyed this episode. Iactually after we hang up, I
feel like I need to go likeclimb a mountain or something.
But listeners, thank you so muchfor tuning in. As always, leave
that five star review.
Subscribe on your favoriteplatform, including YouTube, and
we'll see you next time on theAspiring Solopreneur.
Zach Del Monaco (25:32):
Thank you.
Carly Ries (25:35):
You may be going solo in business, but that
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go. So why not connect withthem and learn 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
(25:56):
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com.
What does it really take to make it as a
(00:02):
solopreneur? In this episode,Zachary Del Monaco gets honest
about hitting rock bottom twice,and how rebuilding his spine,
his mindset, and even hisrelationship with his dad forged
unshakable resilience.Resilience. We dig into the
power of micro wins, nonnegotiables, and thinking 10
times bigger than yourenvironment, plus why
(00:22):
authenticity, not AI copy andpaste, is your unfair advantage.
You'll hear how to reverseengineer a purpose driven
business from the life you want,shortcut years with smart
mentorship, and keep showing upwhen motivation fades.
So if you need a shot of beliefand a blueprint you can use
today, then keep listening.You're listening to The Aspiring
(00:42):
Solopreneur, the podcast foranyone on the solo business
journey, whether you're justtoying with the idea, taking
your first bold step, or havebeen running your own show for
years and want to keep growing,refining, and thriving. I'm
Carly Ries, and along with mycohost, Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
(01:02):
of one. As part of LifeStarr, adigital hub dedicated to all
things solopreneurship, we helppeople design businesses that
align with their life'sambitions so they can work to
live, not live to work. Ifyou're looking for a get rich
quick scheme, this is not theplace for you.
But if you want real worldinsights from industry experts,
lessons from the successes andstumbles of fellow solopreneurs,
(01:23):
and practical strategies forbuilding and sustaining a
business you love, you're in theright spot. Because flying solo
in business doesn't mean you'realone. No matter where you are
in your journey, we've got yourback. Zach, we are so excited to
have you here today. I feel likeyou have such a story to tell.
And it's funny because you're apretty young dude, but you have
(01:43):
so much experience and so muchlife experience under your belt
for that matter, not just inbusiness. But before we dive
into our questions, we have toask you, what do you wish you
knew before starting out as asolopreneur?
Zach Del Monaco (01:56):
That's a great question. There's a lot, but if
I had to pick one, it'd be thatI wish I knew that it would take
more attention, more focus toachieve the goals that I had,
and it would take longer in theprocess. But in doing so, that
I'd be able to outlast everyonethat I was competing with. I
(02:18):
think that a lot of people startout in a business or in
something that they're wantingto build. They think that
they're going to be this hugesuccess so quickly, or at least
that's what I thought.
It takes 10 times more effortthan I would have ever thought,
and it takes 10 times more timein that process, but over that
process you reshape, you getcreative, and you continue
(02:41):
building. But I feel like inthat up and down spiral is when
a lot of people lose that quoteunquote motivation to keep on
going.
Joe Rando (02:49):
Yeah. have this running joke love, and I've said
it about 10 times on thispodcast, but it was a banner I
saw. It was like a meme, and itsaid, we do this not because it
is easy. And then it's smallprint that says, but because we
thought it would be easy.
But absolutely sticking with itand getting through that. If you
outlast the competition, you cansucceed. But you're so right. we
(03:12):
heard yesterday for the firsttime in a podcast, a woman say,
well, it was actually a loteasier than I expected. And I'm
like, what?
Carly Ries (03:20):
who are you, and what did you have for breakfast?
Yeah. Zach, you're right. Youneed that resilience. And I'm
gonna expose you a little bitand piggyback off of that.
You have already hit rockbottom, my friend. And I want to
hear that story, but I alsowanna know how that redefined
how you show up in your businesstoday.
Zach Del Monaco (03:42):
Yeah. Great question. So actually I speak
about one rock bottom, but I'venever said this before. I'll
give you guys two rock bottomsthat I've hit, which is
interesting. The first rockbottom that I hit was in my
spinal surgery where when I wasyoung, I was growing up, I was
really really short.
I had the highest voice in mygrade, I was very very
unconfident, couldn't speak infront of anyone. And the next
(04:04):
thing you know, I shot up almostto six feet. But because of
that, my back couldn'tcompensate. So almost it felt
like overnight, I had a 48%spinal curvature, which
collapsed half of my lung,couldn't play any sports. at the
time I was doing soccer andsurfing, and when I took my
shirt off at the beach or at thepool or go to workout, you could
(04:26):
literally see there was a humpin my back. So I went in for the
surgery, which was an eight hoursurgery, and I spent three
months prior to that building upmy muscle, really developing
myself.
And in less than eight hours,all the muscle was gone. So I
basically had to start torebuild myself. I had to relearn
(04:47):
how to walk, how to even stand,how to run, and I had to
redevelop my whole entiremindset. Because at that time, I
fell into such a deep path ofconstantly asking myself every
single day, when's the next timethat I'm gonna be able to do a
single pushup, be able to walk,be able to hang out with
friends, or even be able to goon business trips with my dad
(05:08):
like I've been doing for thepast three years. The whole
time, that six months, that oneyear was me in rock bottom
sitting with myself saying, I'veliterally been reduced to the
beginnings of where I came fromwhen I was born, and I have to
rebuild everything that I'veever created, which was, to be
(05:30):
honest with you, on brokenfoundations, which is why I say
that that was rock bottombecause it allowed me to
reanalyze my whole entire life,reanalyze who I was, what I was
doing, and why I was doing it.
And in the process, I was ableto take the lessons from that
story and be able to rebuildmyself using that as my brand.
And it's interesting because Iuse this analogy of climbing
(05:54):
Mount Everest, you get to acertain point, you think you're
at the top, and then there's alittle valley that you have to
go down to go back up. And thisis kind of similar to what I've
never shared with people, whichis after that surgery I was
building, I thought I was on thehighest of highs of life. I was
with my dad building father sonduo. We're going to take over
(06:15):
the world.
Then something happened in ourbusiness where we started to
separate. It started to feellike it got neglected, and
something came in between us.And it was at that moment where
my relationship for twenty two,twenty three years of my life
with my father, like, ride ordie with him, I honestly didn't
(06:38):
even wanna be in the same roomwith him, which kills me to even
say. I was even thinking about Iwent to church one night
thinking about I was gonna movecross country to get away from
everything, which hurts me toeven say it. So that rock bottom
at that time was in business.
And moving forward, I was ableto start to rebuild that trust
(07:02):
with him, rebuild thatconnection with him over time
slowly because he had to get toa better place within himself,
within his mind. And I had toget to a better place saying,
you know what? I can actuallystill trust you. You're not
quote unquote what I felt inthat moment abandoning me. And
then when we were able to slowlymove past that, the connection
(07:22):
between myself with that surgeryand the connection between my
father and I moving past thatstruggle in business, that
difficulty, is what built us tothis day, to the point where I
truly believe nothing right nowcan have any momentum in
stopping what we're creatingbecause we're starting
basically, I'm starting fromscratch again.
Carly Ries (07:44):
So let me ask you, because you are resilient. You
overcome these obstacles, but itwasn't like you woke up from
surgery and the next day youwere like, I'm on top of the
world. And same with everythingwith your dad. my assumption is
that you had to take baby stepsand you had small milestones
that you would reach, whether itwas walking That's not a small
(08:04):
milestone.
But like, these little thingseach step of the way that kept
the momentum going. So how cansolopreneurs take the story of
yours and find those minimilestones on what may seem like
an insurmountable journey forthem right now?
Zach Del Monaco (08:22):
Yeah. This is really interesting. So I'm
actually working with one of mycoaches, his name's Tim, on the
story of how it went frompossible to impossible back to
possible. And that's one of thethings that we're talking about.
I have this friend, his name'sJames, and he said this quote
that really hit me, it's, in thebeginning when you're starting
(08:42):
something up, your successes aregonna be small, but they create
a momentum for bigger successes.
And those small successes mightnot be the monetary ones that
you're thinking of. Instead, itmight be the knowledge that you
gain, the skills that you gain,what you're able to take on and
move forward and teach otherpeople. So when starting out, I
would highly suggest thateveryone focuses on where
(09:05):
they're where they wanna go,what that goal is, and then
focusing on those small winsthat will ultimately for me
surmount into those bigger wins.So for example, waking up. I'm
gonna go work out because to me,when I work out, I tame my body,
I tame my mind.
Now I'm in the mindset to gothroughout the day that I did
(09:26):
the hardest thing, was going tothe gym. Okay, next thing I
wanna do if I'm building out mybrand, I'm gonna have to make
some content. Okay, amazing. Wecreated x y z pieces of content.
Now we're gonna post them up.
Amazing. We did that. That'sanother one. Now I have to send
out 10 emails. I have to do 10calls.
Okay. Amazing. Let's get themdone. Bam. Whether they answered
(09:47):
or didn't, we got them done.
Now over a specific amount oftime, you're gonna build more
trust, more credibility, moreconfidence in yourself because
you're doing that. Those big winthose small wins for me is what
ultimately created these bigwins that I have in my life
right now. It's what I set out,I created basically re
engineered the goal and then reengineered what steps I have to
(10:11):
do in order to hit that. Andeach day I had these non
negotiables. No matter whathappens, you are getting these
non negotiables done because inthe end it's gonna help you
achieve this goal.
Carly Ries (10:22):
I love that. I think that's such great advice. And
just from a practicalstandpoint, but also just
listening to you talk, you'revery personal. Like you're
transparent, you're Zachary onthe screen, but I'm like, but
can I call you Zach? Because Ijust feel like I've known you
for longer than ten minutes.
What role do you thinkauthenticity plays, not only in
(10:43):
your success, but success forsolopreneurs?
Zach Del Monaco (10:47):
I think authenticity is sometimes hard
to come by nowadays, but I thinkit's the key to really building
something that is massivelyimpactful and having that
connection with others. Becauseto me, it's really easy to see
all in authenticity, and I getdisassociated. I'm not attracted
(11:12):
to it. Like, you could reallyfeel it over the screen and when
you're talking to someone, andit doesn't feel good. So to me
one of the things that Iactually had to learn in this
whole process, which I'm stilldoing to this day, is almost
complete, not almost, completeauthenticity.
Complete vulnerability, openingup and sharing with people, and
I really feel that that's one ofthe ways that I'm able to
differentiate myself fromeveryone else in this industry
(11:36):
or in this life because eachperson's different, so why are
we trying to act like everyoneelse? If we're able to just be
as authentic as possible and hitthat energy level, that
vibration if you wanna go there,people are gonna be able to feel
it and really connect more withyou. And then I believe in that
connection with you, whateveryour business is, whatever your
brand is, whatever your surfaceor your product is, they're most
(11:58):
likely going to be buying it inthat case because of they know
who you are and they have astrong connection with you
because everyone has the samething that they're building. The
only difference is you.
Joe Rando (12:09):
Question. Do you think it's gotten worse with AI?
Do you think AI is making thislack of authenticity worse?
Zach Del Monaco (12:15):
Yeah, I do. I think people, don't get me
wrong, I love AI and I'mlearning how to use it, but I
think in my opinion people areusing it as a crutch too much
and not doing an eighty twenty,which is 80% taking in the
information giving it, and then20% putting your authentic touch
(12:37):
on it. I feel like people arejust lazy with it, putting
everything in, taking it out,and just sending it.
Joe Rando (12:43):
Yeah. And that's not them anymore. I's it's ChatGPT
or Gemini or whatever.
Carly Ries (12:50):
Zach, I'm curious. So you were talking about the
non negotiables in the morning,and in the past you've talked
about like becoming the mostelevated version of yourself.
And using those terms, it seemslike you have big goals and big
dreams. But not that you're notdeserving of that. You're
absolutely deserving of that andyou should have big goals and
big dreams.
But a lot of times solopreneursthink small. And I'm curious how
(13:14):
you foster and how you nurturethat kind of mentality to shoot
for the stars.
Zach Del Monaco (13:21):
Yep. So I think that was my biggest setback
early in life, is thinking waytoo small. And I blamed that on
myself, I blamed that on theenvironment that I was in, the
people that I was listening toat that time. But I think that's
one of the biggest crutches orfaults that I had and many other
people have in life, is thinkingsmall. One of the ways that I
(13:44):
was able to get past that wasactually with my father and
going to these differentbusiness events, and listening
to these entrepreneurs that Isee online aspiring to be like.
And they were basically everytime that they talked, every
time that they said something,it seemed like there was no
limitation on what they werethinking of, of what was
possible. And then I started todelve into this idea of well,
(14:07):
maybe I am going too small.Well, maybe if I do shoot for
the stars and I land short, I'llstill be further than I was than
other people. And I started togo back and forth with this
concept of thinking big versusthinking small, and I realized
that the thinking big was ableto help me expand my expand my
(14:29):
thinking. Right?
Like expand what I was doing,expand what I was sharing with
other people, and it reallyinspired me each day to get up.
It inspired me, okay, I don'tknow if I'm gonna be able to do
this, but let's try it. It kindof gave me that drive to push
forward. I'd say, especiallywhen starting a brand,
especially when starting abusiness, constantly be thinking
(14:50):
big, because everything in thisworld is going be telling you to
go small, it's not going towork, because it's other
people's limitations that are onyou. But the more that you're
able to hush that, silence that,really think big, expand your
thinking as much as probably Iknow I keep on saying this over
and over, but it's so simple yetso powerful because when you do
this, you're like, wow.
(15:11):
I heard this person talkingabout going on a private jet and
doing a $100,000 mastermind whenI was thinking about a $10,000
mastermind. Wait. A $100,000mastermind is able to be
achieved? How can I do that?Wait.
I'm thinking about touching amillion people's lives? This
person's thinking about abillion. Am I able to achieve a
(15:33):
billion people's lives? Like,impact a billion people's lives?
I don't know.
But I'm gonna try. And in theprocess of trying, I'm gonna
have to become a differentperson to do that. Okay. Now how
can I reverse engineer that?See, the whole purpose of me
saying think bigger is that youcould expand your mind, expand
what you think is possible andhow you're able to get there.
(15:55):
And then I believe, which I'malways striving to do in the end
is, who do you become in thatperson? Who do I become in that
process? And in that process, amI able to achieve quote unquote
that full potential that I haveat the end of my life?
Carly Ries (16:11):
Zach, I feel like I could just visualize you on a
TED talk stage giving thatresponse. Like I feel like I
need the pom poms or the foamfinger right now. But it's so
important that something thatsolopreneurs just struggle with
a lot is motivation andinspiration and all that. I feel
(16:31):
like you've just gave so much ofthat. But you talked about a
coach in the past during thisinterview.
You've talked about your dad.What role do you think
mentorship plays in success forsolopreneurs? Is it necessary?
Zach Del Monaco (16:46):
I absolutely think this is necessary. I
actually think that I take thisoverboard, to be honest with
you. But my idea behindmentorship is you have two
different paths in life. Onepath is let's call it path a,
plan a. Right?
Where you're going down andyou're starting at whether it's
(17:07):
15 years old, 20 years old,whatever. A decade goes by.
Okay. You learned a new skill.You started a new business.
Now another decade goes by. Youscale that. Now another decade
goes by. So you're at 40 to 50years old, you're learning all
of these things by yourselfbecause you think you have the
belief that you could do it onyour own. You don't wanna invest
in anyone.
You know how to do it. You gotit. Amazing. You're at 50. Now
(17:32):
let's flip to path b, which isover here.
You start out at 20 years old,let's say. You have a decade,
that's 30. Instead of trying itall on your own and spending ten
years to learn that one thing,that that one skill to hit that
one target, say a milliondollars in your business, you
pay someone $30,000 $50,000 andat the time you're like this how
(17:57):
is it even possible that I couldpay this? It's crazy. But you
investing in that person $50,you basically just shortcutted
that whole entire decade.
You took fifty years of thatperson's life and now you just
learned exactly their playbook,their mentality. And now say you
do that five times, fivedifferent mentors for each goal
(18:20):
that you have, you are going todo so much further in life than
you were if you didn't invest. Ibelieve that constantly
investing in yourself and inyour business are the two most
important and powerful thingsthat you can do. Because my
whole entire thing is I alwaystry and value time more than
money, so that investing thatmoney can get me back my time in
(18:43):
the future in the end. And Iwanna be able to have the
smartest, most brilliant, mostpowerful people by my side, and
to me that means investing inmentorships, investing in other
people.
The whole thing that I'm doingwith investing in these mentors
like Tim and buying these booksis just shortcutting my way,
shortcutting my time to thesuccess that I want to achieve,
(19:04):
And then when I'm able toachieve that, it's like a whole
another cycle. You just repeat,you're able to mentor other
people in the process. That'swhy I feel mentorship is so
important, especially whenyou're young, and why so many
people are held back becausethey don't understand that
simple fact.
Carly Ries (19:24):
It's such a good point, and it's amazing that you
figured that out at such a youngage. And with that, you do work
with a lot of youngentrepreneurs. What would you
say the biggest mistake is thatthey make when launching a solo
business?
Zach Del Monaco (19:37):
Oh, that's a great question. I'm gonna give
you guys a little bonus on thisone. Number one, I'd say is the
simple fact of thinking big,thinking bigger of what's
possible. The total addressablemarket of what they're able to
achieve. I think many people cutthemselves short on the
(19:57):
possibilities that they're ableto have, and then that hinders
them.
Second thing that I think isreally important for
solopreneurs is the foundations.And what I mean by that is,
because I'm in construction, Ilove talking about foundations
and blueprints. In order tobuild a massive building, you
need a solid foundation. If youdon't build a solid foundation
to start out with, you build 50stories high, next thing you
(20:21):
know, you go build the fiftyfirst, and the whole building
collapses. So being clear on whyyou're doing it, where you're
going, and being able to promoteand share that, to be able to
wake up each and every singleday, that's gonna inspire you to
go out and to build this actualentity, this vision that you
have, but it's gonna allow otherpeople to see it, connect with
(20:43):
you, relate to you, buy intowhat you have, what you're
building, and then also in theend, be able to come onto your
team, and that way you're ableto actually start building out a
team of people behind you.
Carly Ries (20:56):
Yeah. And just for clarification for people
listening, team can be like,that's not employees, that's
like contractors, anybody yousurround yourself with. That's
just too cool. And so let's saythere's somebody in their early
twenties, mid twenties, andthey're just directionless and
they don't know where to go,what do you think is the best
way to start a purpose drivenbusiness today?
Zach Del Monaco (21:19):
I'd say it's actually funny, someone asked me
this the other day and I spentlike thirty minutes thinking
about the right answer because Icould talk about this for three
hours long. I'd say it's askingyourself the question of what am
I interested in and what do Ihave a passion in? I don't know
if it's more so the love, butthe interest and passion,
(21:41):
because when you have aninterest and passion, you dive
into it. You're interested,whether you're making money or
you're not. So that's the firstpart of what you're actually
interested in, what your skillsets are.
And then the second part that Itie into this is, again reverse
engineering. So figuring out thelifestyle that you want to live
(22:02):
in the future, what you need forthat to happen. Example is the
money that you need, whereyou're going to be living, who
you're going to be surroundedby, and then reverse engineering
exactly what vehicle, so whatskill set, what interest, what
passion you have, can be thevehicle that gets you to there.
Because one of the things that Idid as a mistake was I had like
(22:27):
five different interests that Ihad, five different passions
that I had that I tried topursue, but it wasn't the
vehicle that was gonna lead meto that lifestyle that I wanted
in three years. And when it wasthree years later down the road
that I thought that I was gonnaaccomplish it with that vehicle,
I was unfulfilled and I didn'tknow why.
I got aggravated with myself.Then I realized from one of my
(22:48):
mentors that exact thing. Yougotta be able to connect the
lifestyle, the dream, the goalthat you have in the end with
the actual vehicle, or elseyou're gonna be driving with no
GPS and wondering why you'rerunning out of gas halfway
through the journey not beingable to hit the destination.
Carly Ries (23:03):
So Zach, we always end the episode asking our
guests their favorite quoteabout success, but I feel like
you just gave an original quoteabout success that I could
steal. But what is your favoritequote about success?
Zach Del Monaco (23:16):
Absolutely. I have this. I actually have this
quote written down on my phone.So I have these two . It's first
one is success is not owned,it's rented and rent is due each
day.
And the second one is from thebible, it's Proverbs, pulling
(23:39):
this up right now for you guys,Proverbs ten four. And what that
is is "a slack hand causespoverty, but the hand of the
diligent makes rich". Both ofthose quotes correlate in my
mind together saying, you haveto be able to be able and
(23:59):
willing and disciplined enoughto wake up each day, put in the
work, whatever that might be,and to continue moving forward
in order to reach whatever thatmight be for yourself, whatever
rich or wealth that might be foryourself. Those who sit back and
expect versus putting in thework will ultimately lead to
(24:19):
poverty and not be able toachieve that success that they
have. So those to me hit reallyhard because again tying back to
the beginning when I was in thathospital bed unable to move,
family having to take care ofme, I began to crumble because I
wasn't able to get up, doanything, do work.
But the moment that I was ableto start creating and putting
(24:43):
out and flowing out, I felt alot better not because I was
achieving a goal, but because Iwas in the process of giving
value and providing value out topeople.
Carly Ries (24:51):
So Zach, if people have been hearing the Rocky
soundtrack in their headsthroughout this entire
interview, where can people findyou if they wanna learn more?
Zach Del Monaco (25:00):
Yeah. Absolutely. It's Instagram at my
name, zach del monaco. Simple asthat. Basically, it's my main
channel, Instagram.
So see my content there, followthe journey there, reach out to
me any questions that you haveon that platform.
Carly Ries (25:13):
Well, thank you so so much for coming today. I have
really enjoyed this episode. Iactually after we hang up, I
feel like I need to go likeclimb a mountain or something.
But listeners, thank you so muchfor tuning in. As always, leave
that five star review.
Subscribe on your favoriteplatform, including YouTube, and
we'll see you next time on theAspiring Solopreneur.
Zach Del Monaco (25:32):
Thank you.
Carly Ries (25:35):
You may be going solo in business, but that
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go. So why not connect withthem and learn 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
(25:56):
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com.
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