November 12, 2025 • 37 mins
In this episode, Luke Hessler gets radically real about losing everything and rebuilding faster using the only assets no one can take: mindset, skills, and relationships. We dig into personal branding for any personality (yes, introverts), the “one post a day for a year” muscle, turning your warm network into real leads (today), and scaling without employees by fixing fulfillment first and systemizing customer acquisition. It’s gritty, generous, and wildly practical.
FAQs From The Episode
I’m introverted. Can I really build a personal brand without being on camera all day?
Yes. A personal brand is just your authentic offline reputation, online. If video drains you, lead with thoughtful written posts, frameworks, and slow-paced explanations. The people who think like you will prefer it. Pick one platform, post once daily for a year, and use simple content buckets (e.g., Expertise, Process, Personal). Watch engagement to see what lands, then iterate.
I need leads fast on a tiny budget. What should I do this week?
Start with your warm network. Make a handwritten (or spreadsheet) list of every relevant contact and call them. Offer a small “beta” program to a few ideal clients for free in exchange for a testimonial, a case study, and 1–2 introductions. Measure it like math: if 1 in 10 says “yes,” and you need 5 clients, make 50 quality outreaches. Don’t overcomplicate. Sort for the “ready now,” not convince the “not now.”
How do I scale without hiring employees and avoid burning out?
Fix fulfillment first. Ensure partners/vendors can handle increased volume so new sales don’t create churn. Then systemize customer acquisition (choose one core motion: landing page + traffic, affiliates, or cold outbound that sets appointments). Expect a short initial sprint (the jet uses 80% of fuel on takeoff), then automate/outsourcing what worked: repurpose posts, templatize outreach, use software or reliable vendors. Choose a sustainable cadence over heroics.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carly Ries (00:00):
If you've ever thought, I don't have a year to
(00:02):
wait for leads, this episode isyour shortcut. Luke Hessler, PR
pro and former affiliatebuilder, shares how to create
authority fast, even as anintrovert. Also, what to post
and why every day matters, andthe easiest place to find your
clients, and how to scalewithout employees once the
engine catches. This episode iscandid, tactical, and very real,
(00:23):
complete with the pre weddingbusiness implosion and the
rebuild that followed. Listen inand steal the steps.
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,
(00:43):
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
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
(01:04):
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 stumbles of
fellow solopreneurs, andpractical strategies for
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.
(02:08):
Luke, we told you offline thatwe are getting great vibes from
you from a first impressionstandpoint, and that you're
already so personable and we'rebecause of that, we're just so
happy to dive into this episodebecause I think a big part of
this show will be about kindahow solopreneurs can
differentiate themselves andstand out, which I think you
just did within the first threeseconds of us meeting you. But
(02:30):
before we dive in, just topiggyback off of, like, we like
this guy mode. You chose theicebreaker question that nobody
chooses, and so we are thrilledto ask, what is the wildest
thing that's happened to you asa solopreneur?
Luke Hessler (02:47):
Oh, I love this question. See, it's so
interesting that people don'tchoose it because it's like,
these are the best stories, youknow. So it's like, I love
sharing this stuff. I also am afirm believer in life that you
can learn a lot more from myscars than my accolades, you
know. So I like talking aboutthese interesting experiences
because they're real.
So, yeah, probably the thewildest thing that happened to
(03:09):
me was three days before I gotmarried, we had two things
happen. So at the time I had anagency and I was a solopreneur
at the agency, you know, in thesense that it was just me there
doing my thing. I did have afriend that was helping with the
finance side of things. And hewould basically give me reports,
all the time of where thenumbers were at and all of those
(03:32):
things. And this is my firsttime owning my own business, so
I just basically blindlylistened to the numbers that
were there.
And at the time, we werebasically reselling a software
that was really effective and ishelping people grow their
Instagram accounts, all thatkind of stuff. And then I wake
up one day and Instagram updatedtheir API so we could no longer
connect to it with the software,which essentially made our
service be completely obsolete.So I went from having like,
(03:56):
hundreds of clients that were onthis thing to it not working
overnight. Right? And so it'sjust one of those times where
like, alright, I have to pivotquickly.
So that in itself is a big wakeup call. But then I go to see
how much runway we have. Becausethere's a little cash in the
bank. And I was dumb enough,frankly, to always just listen
to the person that was doing thefinances.
(04:16):
He just give me a report. Ithink that's what the numbers
was. First time I'm actuallylooking at the bank account.
Again, stupid thing, I know. Butthe numbers the money wasn't
there.
And, come to find out the personthat was doing a lot of the
financing, there was some stuffthat happened there and, you
know, all these kinds of things,taking money, da da da da.
That's another long story. Soit's three days before my
wedding and I have, now nobusiness at zero. And I also
(04:40):
figured out all the money Ithought I had to be able to go
and, have runway to startsomething out was also at zero.
And the person was a relativelyclose friend.
He was invited to my wedding.And he was the person that ended
up doing this thing to me. soI had to relearn things quickly,
pivot, grow from it. But I willsay the positive in the story
that I took from it, apart fromobviously, you know, don't be
(05:01):
dumb and manage your financeswell, is the fact that it's like
even though I lost everything inthat moment, I was able to
rebuild it. And I was able torebuild it faster because I had
skills that I had learned fromthe time before.
And that was just something I'vealways taken with me, this
persistency because, any day youcan lose your business, you can
lose your income, but no one cantake away your mindset, no one
(05:23):
can take away your skills, noone can take away your
relationships, and you canrebuild just as fast as you lost
it. And so that was a that wasan important lesson for me to
learn.
Joe Rando (05:32):
unbelievable. the elephant in the room is, did
that guy come to the wedding?
Luke Hessler (05:39):
You know what? He actually did come to the
wedding. So, you know, I'mpersonally a Christian myself,
and so I'm like, you know, lookthe other way, do the things,
and so I forgave him and movedon and tried to apply those
principles there.
Joe Rando (05:51):
You're a better man than I.
Carly Ries (05:55):
Did your father-in-law know all this
happened three days before, andhow was that exchanged at the
aisle when you're looking?
Luke Hessler (06:01):
Great question. The answer is no. I kept this
one to myself, you know,throughout this. I'm like,
alright.
This is my problem. And soavoided that exchange until I
was able to provide thesolution, And then now it's a
good story. Now I can tell itbecause we have a solution to
the story.
Carly Ries (06:17):
Had to ask. As of being a bride, I had to ask.
Well, Luke, thank you so muchfor being that transparent and
just sharing that story. Andhopefully, is a lesson for
future guests. It's a good ideato share these types of stories.
But early on you built apersonal brand identity that
really resonated with people.And in the topic of like of just
(06:41):
standing out in a credit market,how important do you think
personal branding is forsolopreneurs today? And how
should they start with it?
Luke Hessler (06:50):
Yeah. That's a really good question. and for a
little context to my answer, myfirst business that I started
was I was in the affiliatemarketing world. And so I wasn't
really a solopreneur becausesomeone else was building the
product, doing all that kind ofstuff. But I got paid for
commissions by driving sales tothe website.
Joe Rando (07:06):
Stop. Stop. You're a solopreneur.
Luke Hessler (07:09):
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Joe Rando (07:11):
You're a solopreneur. No. Affiliate marketers can be
solopreneurs. It's okay ifsomebody else building it.
You didn't employ them. Youweren't giving them a w two.
Luke Hessler (07:19):
You know what? That's actually very true. Okay.
So I was solopreneur in thatworld. You're right.
Alright. Correct So I was stilla solopreneur in that world.
And, at that point, all you'redoing is marketing and sales.
That's the goal. And you getpaid commissions on what you do.
And if you can create a team andteach them how to do it, you get
override commissions on that. soI started this when I was 19
years old in college. I justwanted to figure out a way to
(07:40):
make money online. I knew thatwas the future. I wanted freedom
and wanted to go and figure thisthing out. And what ended up
happening for me is I struggleda lot in the beginning for
people to take me seriouslybecause I had no track record.
Was just college kid, frankly,at Michigan State University.
Why would anybody listen to me?But what I started to learn,
this is back in 2013, is that Ialways knew that first
(08:01):
impressions lasted a lifetime.My parents taught me that really
young, but I started to learnthat the first impression
oftentimes in the digital agewas in online first impression.
So it was like a Google searchor a social media search rather
than a handshake or aconversation.
And so when I anticipated thatand I realized that, I was like,
man, what if I started insteadof just posting random college
stuff online, I started to postpersonal development stuff,
(08:23):
talking about business, positionmyself as a professional, had a
professional profile picture,all these little things on
Facebook at the time. I'm like,then when I'm messaging these
people to see if they'reinterested in my product or
service, they're not gonna thinkthey're talking to some random
college dude, I'll actually beprofessional. Maybe they'll give
me the time of day behind that.And so that's when I consciously
started to really focus onbuilding my brand. And I saw
(08:43):
measurable results behind that.
And through just like, frankly,trial and error, I figured out
strategies to be able to go andbuild my personal brand. I
taught my team to do that. Andthat's why from '19 to '23, I
built an affiliate organizationof, you know, 30,000 people
across 50 states in 20 differentcountries. Average age was
probably 22 years old, and itwas all really on, personal
(09:04):
branding on social media andusing that to sell the products
essentially. And so I tell thatto be able to just say that that
is so important, and that's whyI do what I do today, which is,
you know, I'm in the PR world,the branding world, because we
tell people, listen, that firstimpression is a Google search or
a social media search, andthey're gonna judge you in a
matter of seconds.
And there it's gonna be a simpleunconscious judgment, like this
person's legit, this personisn't, whatever. But that moment
(09:27):
is gonna determine whether ornot they give you access to them
if there's a furtherconversation. And so positioning
yourself online as a credibleauthority in your space, I think
is so important. And I look atit as an asset.
I look at it as a digital asset.The bigger your brand is with
time, as more attention goesonline. And I think attention is
(09:47):
the currency of the digitaleconomy. That's gonna make that
asset be worth more and more andmore.
And if you can start to build areputation of being someone
who's known in your space for aparticular thing, referrals come
from that. If you're runningads, it helps to have the
conversion rates behind it. Andso that being said, I think it's
extremely important. The secondquestion is like what should
people do right now to startbuilding it? It's as simple as
(10:08):
just starting on social mediaand and committing to posting
once a day on whatever platformyou want.
You know, Facebook, Instagram,TikTok, yeah, they all have
their pros and cons, we can diveinto that later. But if you can
just pick a platform and you canactually focus on committing
content and posting it everysingle day for a year, it's a
muscle that you start to go andbuild. And you start to realize,
(10:28):
wait, I can just copy that postand put it over to another
platform, and now I'm posting onevery platform. Right? And
you'll start to, it's also apositive feedback loop.
I think of it like going intothe gym. You know, if you're
overweight, you go to the gym,that first workout, you don't
see a bunch of success. You makethat first post, no one engages
with it. Right?
But it's a process, and if youcommit to it, that's why I say
for a year, you will start tosee that progress and you start
(10:50):
to build this muscle of creatingcontent. And it actually, you
know, for me, it becomes kindafun, to be able to go out there
and do. So I think that's thefirst step that people need to
go and commit to is pick aplatform that you feel
comfortable creating content onand just create on it every day
for a year, and it's an amazingstart.
Joe Rando (11:05):
Can I back up for a second because of clarification?
We're using the term building apersonal brand, a personal
brand. And I have a picture inmy head that maybe matches other
people's, maybe doesn't. I don'tknow.
But I always think of a personalbrand as something that not
(11:26):
everybody can do it. Noteverybody has the personality to
build a personal brand, and somepeople are really good at it,
and other people even if you doall the steps, it's not gonna
work as well. You know, if youlike, you have a great
personality. Carly's anextrovert. I'm an introvert.
Right? So I'm the kind of personthat given the choice between
posting on social media orgetting, in front of the camera
(11:47):
and Getting in front of aspreadsheet or, whatever, I'm
gonna pick the spreadsheet. Andso I'm just wondering what your
take is on generally aboutpersonal brand. Can anybody
develop a personal brand?
And follow on since you wentinto social media, you say post
every day, but there's gotta besome kind of best practices for
(12:08):
what you post, how you post sothat it's not just, you know,
content for the sake of content.
Luke Hessler (12:15):
Yeah. Great great question. So to answer the first
one is, like, are there certainpeople that are right for the
personal brand versus not? Youknow, I am of the belief that
everyone should build a personalbrand. but I think that the
brand needs to be your authenticvoice.
And what I mean by that is thatpeople like myself or it sounds
like Carly, who are moreextroverted in things like this,
(12:36):
maybe we're gonna thrive on avideo platform, you know, where
we can just talk and do ourthings and make that stuff
happen. And that's amazing. Andthat's gonna be most comfortable
for us. Someone who's moreanalytical and thought,
provoking like yourself, maybeit's more like taking time to go
out there and, do written postsand you're providing content and
insight and strategies andinsight and that type of the
thing. But my point is thatpeople like people who are like
(12:57):
them.
And so there are a lot of peopleon social media right now that
think the same way that you do.They're much more analytical.
They're much more logical andthey actually like the slower
talking, more detail, that typeof thing. And they're attracted
to that because that's who theyare. And so you can build an
audience of people who are likeyou in the same way that
somebody who is, more like me,extroverted, you know, speaking
(13:18):
loud and things like this, like,they would be more attracted to
me.
And so I challenge people whenthey say, hey, I'm just not the
personality for a personalbrand. I'm like, I don't know
about that. It's like becauseall a personal brand is to me is
taking who you are offline andputting that online. That's the
idea. Is that when I work withsomeone, it's like I wanna take
your authentic offlinereputation and I wanna copy and
(13:40):
paste that online.
So when people look you up andsee your content, they get the
same impact as if they had aconversation with you. And they
feel like they know you becauseof that being there. Because if
you don't have that content upthere, you leave it up for
interpretation, whatever thealgorithm pushes up or whatever
that may go and be, and people'sminds go a little bit crazy. So
I do actually think that anyonecan go and build a personal
(14:01):
brand in that way. What wassecond question, what was the
follow-up?
Joe Rando (14:05):
Just you said, pick a social media platform and post
every day.
Luke Hessler (14:09):
Yeah.
Joe Rando (14:10):
But it's gotta be more than just posting. Because
I mean, I can post every dayabout my dog, but I wouldn't do
a lot for my solopreneurbusiness.
Luke Hessler (14:18):
Yeah. So No. Great question.
Carly Ries (14:19):
Would, because he's a cute dog. So Yeah.
Luke Hessler (14:22):
If he had a cute dog, maybe that'll help. I would
say this. I say two things withit. So number one is it's almost
like, again, somebody who isextremely you know, I have a
friend, for example, who's fourhundred pound he was four
hundred pounds. He lost 200pounds.
He heeded body program, and nowhe helps people with, like,
massively obese bodytransformations. That's his
thing. And whenever he workswith somebody for the first
(14:43):
time, the goal is not to go tothe gym and do all these, here's
your workout routine and go dothat. It's just like, go for a
walk. Walk go for a walk.
And a walk can be literally tothe end of your driveway and
back. And then you maybe go alittle bit further the next day,
and then a little bit furtherthe next day. And you just start
taking this small incrementalsteps that's a little bit better
than where you're at today. Andso when I talk about the
(15:04):
personal branding thingcommitting to going in and
posting, it's kind of likesomeone committing to just going
to the gym. You're notcommitting to the specific lifts
you're gonna do when you go tothe gym.
You're just committing thatyou're gonna actually go to the
gym. And if you show up to thegym, you're probably not just
gonna show up and leave. You'regonna pick up some weights and
start doing some stuff. And sothe concept of posting is just
building that muscle of postingsome sort of a content.
(15:25):
Now when we're talking aboutwhat do you post, that's a
little bit of a different story.You know, I always teach people
to create content buckets. Andso what I mean by that is think
of them like pillars of yourbrand. So if you think of like
who you are, for me, I do likemy family, I have business
stuff, and then I have lifestylethings, you know. And those are
kind of like all the contentthat I post is like falling
within those three buckets.
(15:46):
And so we talk about kind oflike posting your dog. It's not
gonna do much for yoursolopreneur business, but you'd
be surprised. Some people aredog people, and they just see
that side of you, and they'relike, oh, wow. He's a dog
person. Me too.
And now there's some,relatability that's being there
with some person. So I don't sayonly post your business stuff
twenty four seven. Post who youare, you know. And from a
business standpoint, there doesneed to be some strategy there.
(16:08):
So like for me, for example,we're working with a lot of
people who are thought leaders.So like consultants or coaches
or things like this. And so I'mgoing to be posting content
that's relevant to thataudience. Like, I'm not posting
about real estate because thathas nothing to do with my
audience that's there. And sowhen it does come to posting,
you do wanna think about, okay,who is the person that I'm
intending this to go to?
(16:29):
Like, who am I creating thiscontent for? And what problems
do those people have that I cansolve with this content? And you
create the content with the enduser in mind. I like to think of
it as if I'm just talking to oneperson, and I'm just talking to
one person, was a conversation,they have a problem, and I'm
just talking them through that.And I'll pretend I'm having that
conversation to then create thatcontent around that.
(16:53):
And it's really helpful withthat way. And so I would say,
again, that the key is justshowing up and being there. If
you actually show up and postevery single day, I guarantee
you, you will start to figureout the content because you're
gonna get sick of posting yourdog every single day. You're
gonna be like, I gotta actuallypost something else. And then
you're gonna think about whatelse should I post?
And you'll start to kinda startthis creative process of
(17:14):
figuring it out. And quitefrankly, you'll never know if
you have the perfect you'renever gonna have the perfect
content. But you use theengagement as a feedback loop.
Like, you'll make one post thatgets a lot more engagement than
the other ones, and you're like,oh, people like this topic. Now
how can I create otheriterations off of that one?
And now your focus is morearound that thing. So if you are
showing up and you are postingbased on the engagement, you'll
(17:35):
get feedback of what type ofcontent your audience resonates
with, and then you iteratearound that.
Joe Rando (17:40):
Yeah. Definitely makes sense. Thank you.
Luke Hessler (17:43):
Yeah. Great questions.
Carly Ries (17:44):
I Wanna circle back for a sec because you kinda went
through something reallyquickly. Can you restate those
stats of when you scaled youraffiliate business? Because
those were mind blowing, and Iwant you to restate them because
I have a question for you afterthat.
Luke Hessler (17:59):
Yeah. Absolutely. So We scaled it from when I was
19 to 23. We scaled it from meto about 30,000 people across 50
states in 20 differentcountries.
Joe Rando (18:09):
What were you selling?
Luke Hessler (18:10):
It was a health and wellness product, a healthy
energy drink, believe it or not.
Carly Ries (18:15):
Well, so I wanted you to reiterate that because I
think one of the things thatsolopreneurs mess up a lot is
scaling. And they try to do ittoo quickly or they don't have
the timing rate. You clearlyscaled something well. What
advice do you have forsolopreneurs who want to scale
without employees, and any redflags that they should avoid?
Luke Hessler (18:36):
Yeah. It's a great question. The answer is number
one is you have to have yourfulfillment dialed in. Like if
you're selling whatever service,you have to make sure that that
can be fulfilled with some sortof a partner that can take that
taken care of.
So if you're all in webservices, make sure whoever's
creating your website has thecapacity to take on a lot more
clients, right? Or whatever theservice is, if you're kind of
(18:57):
have vendors that are there. Andso you have to have the back end
in place. That's like the firstmost important thing to scale.
Because if that's not in place,you can create all these new
sales, but then customers aren'thappy and then it starts to go
in the wrong direction.
And so I would say that's themost important thing is having
that foundation in place. And ifyou can get the foundation for
your fulfillment in place, then,like for me, that's what I was
(19:18):
saying. Was like, okay, notreally a total sole
entrepreneur, but I was. Youknow, you're right. You
corrected that because I workedwith a company that already had
like, their whole model is like,we do the fulfillment, you guys
do the distribution. so all Ihad to do is focus on the
distribution, and that was theonly thing that was there. And
so it was so simple for me toscale because literally
everything in the back endworked, all the technology, all
the fulfillment, everything, Idecided to get people to click
(19:39):
buy, and I knew everything elsewas taken care of. So that's
really important to have.
Carly Ries (19:44):
Okay. that's great. But yeah. It was just so funny
because you mentioned that. AndI was like, that sounds like a
big number.
Luke Hessler (19:52):
It was pretty cool. And another thing to
mention, think it's worthtalking about on that is that, I
also had no experience beforethat. I was a dumb frat rat
college kid at 19, you know, Ihad no experience. And just
frankly, had some things happen.I made bad choices in my life
where I was just like, alright,I gotta get my life together. I
had like this naivety enough tobelieve that I could go and do
(20:13):
it. You know, it was like thiscompany had been around for, a
long time. I mean, not thatlong, but ten years, you know,
before I got into it. And, theyhadn't done over $71,000,000 in
sales, you know? And then westarted this kind of like young
person thing within it.
And we took the company to Ithink $230,000,000 in sales. And
so the point is it's likesometimes you just have to have
(20:35):
the courage to try, and there'sa certain level of naivety that
does have to go in it. Becauseif I looked at the stats of what
percentage of people succeed andthis type of stuff, like, was
all working against me. I had noprior anything, But with the
right, I guess, ambition anddream ambition, as long as you
continue to learn and grow,anyone can really go make
anything happen.
So don't let your past hold youback from starting. I think
(20:56):
that's a big thing for people.
Joe Rando (20:58):
I used to work with a guy that had a saying, which
was, we can do anything becausewe're stupid. I love that. And
it's true. you see so manyamazing things happen from
people that weren't educated,knowledgeable enough to know
that everybody believed itcouldn't be done and just went
and did it.
I love that. I love your story.
Luke Hessler (21:19):
Yeah.
Carly Ries (21:20):
so so good. Well, so Mhmm. Okay. You were talking
about you run a PR firm now andyou help people stand out and
help them get leads andeverything. But my question, so
we were talking about socialmedia and the putting in the
reps for a year, but what ifthere's a solopreneur that has
limited time, limited budget,and they're like, well, Luke,
(21:42):
that's cute and all, but I don'thave a year to start bringing in
leads. what would you say is themost cost effective efficient
way to generate leads forSilicon these days?
Luke Hessler (21:55):
Yeah. That's a really good question. So the way
that I did it when I firststarted is you start off with
your warm market that you have.So everyone knows people, and
you know people who know people.And the people closest to you,
sometimes they don't supportyou, you know, and that's tough,
I dealt with that.
But oftentimes, they do alsoreally want you to go and
(22:15):
succeed. And so just creating alist of people that you know, I
mean, literally, I took pen andpaper and just sat down of like,
who are the people that I knowthat could potentially be
interested in this? And I justwrote down a name. I just sat
there and built as big of a listas I possibly could. And then I
literally just called everysingle person and just saw if
they'd be interested in what itis that I was doing. I'll also
(22:38):
say this, in the very beginning,if you're in the very, very,
very beginning of what you'redoing, people may not trust you
yet. Because you're juststarting this thing. And so
another thing that I did in thebeginning that worked well is
that I created what I called itquote unquote beta group. And so
basically, it was just somepeople that I was doing services
for free in exchange fortestimonials and for case
(23:02):
studies.
And I would go and do that. Andso I would say, hey. I wanna do
the service for you. I'll do itfor free. This is what I want in
exchange.
If you like it, make atestimonial, record a case study
for me. And if you know anyone,if you make an introduction,
that would be amazing. And thatis a great way to build goodwill
with people. Build up some casestudies because that again,
(23:24):
you're just starting off. Sopeople are like, do they
actually know what they'redoing?
And if you can be like, yes,look at what this person's
experience was. Look at whatthis person's experience was.
And then you also build somepositive goodwill within your
network because a lot of stuffin the beginning comes from warm
market referrals. That's justthe reality of it Until you can
start to invest into some sortof form of marketing.
Carly Ries (23:42):
Yeah. I know. so many people that we've had on
this show have been like, Iforgot to tell people what I do.
it's like, oh, and I tell afunny story of, over a decade
ago, listening in on aconversation my parents were
having. And they were like,yeah, she's a creative director
for an ad agency.
I didn't work at an ad agencyand I have never been a creative
(24:04):
director. And it's just likethose low hanging fruits that
you don't think about, like yourwarm list and all of that. Where
it's oh, yeah. Like that, peoplethink it has to be so
complicated and they have to gobuy these best practices from a
marketing formula and it can beas simple as what you just said.
Luke Hessler (24:20):
Yeah. I mean, I try to get people to just think
of it as math. Like, it'sliterally just a law of
averages, you know. there's acertain number of people out
there who are interested in yourservices and a certain number of
people that aren't. Okay?
And your job is not to convincethe ones who aren't to want it.
It's to sort through all of themto find the ones who are looking
for what you have. that's thegoal. And you can do that, with
ads.
You can do that with, high coldoutreach and, automated email
(24:43):
campaigns and all these types ofthings. But you can also do that
by just writing down a list andcalling people. And so it's just
the numbers have to make sense.That's it, you know?
It's like there's a law ofaverages. Again, you do
something often enough, a ratioappears. You call 10 people,
maybe one of them is interested,right? So now you have a 10%
conversion rate.
You want 10 clients, call a 100people, you know? and whatever
your rates are. I think you justhave to have the grit to be
(25:07):
willing to kind of like trudgethrough the mud and get a bunch
of these no's in order to findthe few yeses, that are there.
But I think that's challengingfor people because especially if
you're a first time solopreneur,it feels very vulnerable, and
you're putting yourself outthere. And sometimes when people
say no to your business, you canfeel like they're saying no to
you as a person because it'ssuch a personal part of you.
(25:28):
So you almost take it as apersonal rejection. And it's
not. They're just not ready forthe business. So you move on and
go to the next one. But somepeople can't get through that
kind of emotional gymnastics ormental gymnastics that it holds
them back from making all thosephone calls or doing the things
that you need to do or postingon the brand because they're
scared of what people think. Andjust you if you wanna be
successful as solopreneur, youcan't have that. You have to get
(25:49):
through that fear. And the onlyway you get through that fear is
by running straight at it anddoing it even though you're
scared, you know. And then youstart to realize, oh, it's
wasn't so scary,
Carly Ries (25:59):
Well, so if you were just starting out today, I'm
assuming this would be one ofthe first things that you would
do, but what else would you doto start building momentum?
This, posting every day,anything else? If you were your
19 year old self right now, withyour current business, what
would you do?
Luke Hessler (26:16):
Well, I mean, as a solopreneur, the first goal is
to get profitable. Right? Like,that's the first goal. So for
me, if I started up a businesstoday, the very first thing I
would do is figure out, how canI get profitable as quickly as
possible? I would try to get myfirst few customers that are
there. But the reason I would dothat is because I already have
the mindset with it. Like, if Iwas talking to my 19 year old
(26:37):
self yet who'd never done thisbefore, the first thing I would
do is get his head straight, andstart to get them expectations,
managed a little bit. I think somany people also see these
people on Instagram living thesecrazy lifestyles and they think
it happens overnight and itdoesn't. It takes time, you
know. Like, I try to tell peoplethink in decades instead of
days, and it's hard to do intoday's society. But if you can
(26:58):
have that long term mindset, ifyou can have the resilience and
understand that, every no isjust taking you closer to
another yes, you know? And youget that mindset with it, And so
I would really try to reallycommunicate to myself having the
correct mindset aroundentrepreneurship and
(27:18):
solopreneurship.
And I think if you get thatstraight, the tactics and the
techniques, you will eventuallyfigure them out. I mean, there's
the story of I think it wasThomas Edison, creating the
light bulb. You know? He failedso many times.
He was interviewed like, youfailed 10,000 times creating the
incandescent light bulb. Whydidn't you quit? And he answered
by saying, you see, that's thedifference between you and me. I
(27:39):
didn't fail 10,000 times. I justfound 10,000 ways that didn't
work. And I eventually figuredout a way that works. And so the
way the most of the world lookat is 10,000 failures. He looked
at it as 10,000 successes causehe figured out all the ways that
didn't work. And it's a simpleshift in the way you think, but
it makes all the difference, Ithink.
Carly Ries (27:57):
Mhmm. I love love that. That's right on. you know,
you find those failures andpeople get pushed down. They
just feel like, I can't do this,and it's like, no. No. You just
figured out something thatdoesn't work. Great great
perspective.
Well and I feel like if I werelistening to this episode, I'm
like, okay. I need to figure outwhat's profitable. I need to do
(28:18):
social. I need to reach out tomy warm leads. There's so much
to do and I feel it's kinda likea hustle hustle hustle hustle,
get it done.
But you're not big on hustling,at least not anymore. I imagine
your 19 year old self may havebeen scrappy
Luke Hessler (28:31):
yeah yeah.
Carly Ries (28:32):
Or just trying, because you could. But for
solopreneurs that got intosolopreneurship for a lifestyle
and to make it to their kidsballet or recital or whatever,
what kind of systems can theyput in place so that they're not
working around the clock, notconstantly hustling, and
actually living a well balancedlife?
Luke Hessler (28:52):
Yeah. That's a really good question. In my
opinion, you know, it's myexperience. Okay? In my personal
experience within it, I actuallydo think you have to have a
little hustle beginning.
You know? I really do.
I think of it like a like a jetplane taking off. If you look at
the fuel, they use 80% of theirfuel on takeoff. but then once
they're up there, they can justglide with it, and it's pretty
(29:15):
simple to go and do. So to, getthe rocket to take off, to get
the thing off the tarmac, ittakes a certain level of energy.
And there are sacrifices thathave to go out there and be
made. And that's it. That's anunavoidable reality is what I
found in my career.
Once you do it, you know, onceyou figure it out, then you can
(29:35):
build systems around all ofthese things. like, take the
most important thing to buildthe system around is customer
acquisition. Like, how can youconsistently and predictably
create customers? And for you,what is that model? There are so
many different strategies. Youcan create a lead, a landing
page, and drive traffic to that.You can go and do an affiliate
program, and maybe affiliatesare referring people to you in
that way.
Maybe you're doing cold outboundon email. You find a vendor that
(29:57):
sends a bunch of emails on yourbehalf, and they set up leads
for you. Right? there are somany different ways that you can
go out there and do this. So thespecific tactics and strategies
are unlimited.
But you have to figure out thecore basics of number one, like,
who is my customer, and how do Isolve the problems? And you have
to figure that out and then justbe like, how can I consistently
(30:17):
get them in front of me? Andagain, I wish I had an answer
where it's like, if you'restarting out today, you do A, B
and C software and you can workhours a week and make, you know,
5,000 a month for the rest ofyour life. but in my experience,
that dream is not real. And youhave to actually put in a short
term sacrifice to get this thinggoing. And so for me, I had to
(30:38):
restart, right, like, with mywife when we got married and
restart, like, I'd have aconversation with her. I was
like, listen, I went back tozero just so you know. Alright?
So I need to build this and it'sgonna take a lot of energy and
effort, And I want you to knowthat, I'm doing this for you
and, if it ever gets too muchand you need more of me, I need
you to communicate that to me.But right now, I just have to
get this going for us and ourfuture family. And it was a lot
(31:01):
of work in the beginning.
But as you mentioned, as youstart to build them out, you can
systemize this with especiallywith software and technology and
everything that you have now,like, you can basically take the
things you were doing manuallyand you just automate that,
Like, you get a technology tocome in and do it for you. You
get a vendor to go in and do itfor you. So I think first you
gotta figure out what works bygoing through that process, but
then after you figure out itworks, the next question is
(31:22):
like, alright, how can Ioutsource it essentially? how
can I leverage this through asoftware or maybe a third party
vendor that can do this for me?
And then you get that time backand you work on the next thing,
you know? And you just do thatthroughout your business until
all the components of it havebeen, outsourced essentially
through technology or some sortof a support vendor. And that's
when you can have this freedom,to really do what you want. But
(31:43):
I really think it's unrealisticto think that happens in the
beginning. I think you gotta putin some time.
r the other thing is thatthere's a certain amount of time
that's required, and if youdon't kinda sprint at it, is
what I have done in the past,you can do it slower, but you
just then have to understandit's gonna take time. Like let's
call it a hundred hours. Right?Like it's more than that. But
just call it a hundred hours,it's like I could freaking grind
(32:06):
out a hundred hours in a weekand just go crazy with it.
And then I'm done in a week. Oryou can do, you know, one hour a
day for a hundred days, and it'sgonna take you a hundred days to
get that done. But you gotta dothe hour. You gotta put the
hours in regardless of how oftenyou're gonna go and do it. So I
think you also kinda have tomatch what sacrifices are you
willing to do, with your desiredoutcomes.
And then that kind of canstructure the lifestyle around
(32:28):
that a little bit.
Joe Rando (32:31):
that's a topic I'm really interested in. And I have
a thought on it, and I want yourtake on what I think. And that
is that if you have a choicebetween, a hundred hours in a
week and a hundred hours in ayear or whatever, there's a
sweet spot where you're going toif you do it in a week, you're
(32:51):
not gonna be learning in betweenthose hours so that that next
hour is optimized, and there'san optimal amount of time to
kinda sprint, that works thebest for kind of learning
lessons, processing stuff, andbeing able to implement it and
adjust as you go. Would youagree with that?
Like, you don't wanna be doing ahundred hours for six months.
(33:12):
You're better off doing, youknow, fifty hours for a year
because you'll wind up with abetter result. It may take
longer, but
Luke Hessler (33:20):
That a good question. Yeah. No. It's a good
question. I can only answerbased off of my experience. I
think it's really a personalitytype and probably, an
environmental situation typebecause it's like when I first
started at 19, it really wasjust the grind. Like, it was all
I thought about all the timetwenty four seven, and it
actually helped me iteratequicker because it wasn't like I
(33:41):
had an idea and then I put itdown for a day and then had to
come back and be like, what wasI thinking? It was like I could
just quickly go through all ofthat kind of stuff.
So at that time in my life, Iwas single, I had no
responsibilities, I had nofamily, I had no anything. And
so it allowed me to likeactually put in that time and
focus and still reflect on it.And so, but I think that's a
unique situation. I think formost people, what you just said
(34:03):
is probably the best thing forthem. Because at the end of the
day, you have to make it besustainable. Because if you put
in a hundred hours in a week andthen you're burned out and you
never do anything after that,it's no good, you know? And so
you have to know your ownendurance, with this. Like we
are running a marathon, And it'slike, you can't sprint an entire
marathon, that's the reality ofit,
And so it's like, I think a lotof it is also just knowing who
(34:26):
you are and what you can do andnot burning yourself out and
realizing that this is a longterm commitment. So if you had
to choose a hundred hour sprintburnout versus, you know, a
hundred hours in a year orwhatever, but it's consistent
and then you can do that nextyear and then the year after
that and the year after that andthe year after that, the latter
of the two is always the theright choice, I think. Yeah.
Great question on that.
Carly Ries (34:44):
Well, Luke, you've had such great nuggets
throughout this episode, and Ijust think this will help so
many people. So I have to askyou, what is your favorite quote
about success? Oh, my favoritequote about success. I think
it's this Zig Ziglar quote. It'syou can get anything you want in
the world by helping enoughother people get what they want.
Or you can get anything you wantin the world by yeah. That's
what it is. By helping enoughother people get what they want.
(35:06):
And that's kind of ourphilosophy. It's our ethos of
what we do here. You know, ourmission statement at Ace
Branding is to serve those whoserve others.
Luke Hessler (35:12):
So we wanna go find impact driven thought
leaders, entrepreneurs, andbusinesses, and amplify their
voice through digital PR. So Ilook at everything we do as
service, you know, even oursales team, when we teach our
philosophy around sales, it's toplay the numbers game without
making people feel like a numberbecause they aren't. And
there are kinda three componentsto that, but the most important
part is the comma at the endwhere it says because they
(35:34):
aren't because that's a corebelief of ours.
It's like we are talking topeople, humans that have real
lives and real things going on,and they're not just a number.
we need to get to know thesepeople and genuinely figure out
how can we serve them and howcan we help them. And by doing
that, it leads to long termretention. It leads to all these
great things that have greatbusiness outcomes, but I think
that ethos behind it is reallyreally important.
Carly Ries (35:56):
Mhmm. Well, and Luke, you've been such a trooper
because we had all thesequestions we wanted to ask you
about your solo journey, and wedidn't even mention ACE branding
yet. I mean, you just talkedabout it a little bit, but where
could people find out more aboutyou, more about the company?
Give us all the links that wecan include in our show notes.
Luke Hessler (36:14):
Yeah. Just go to acebranding.com. You guys can
all look at my Instagram. It'sLuke_Hessler if you wanna go it
out there. And, I kinda gave alittle bit of what it is.
But but, yeah, I think for us,it's I tell people, you focus on
PR after you get the marketingstuff dialed in. So for you guys
that are, solopreneurs in thevery beginning, frankly, I would
not be investing my resources inPR at this point. You know, I
think if you're a company that'sdoing like a million a year
(36:36):
looking to scale, PR is abeautiful thing to go out there
and do. And it makes a ton ofsense, at that point. I always
like to just tell people who itis and who it isn't for as well.
But, yeah, if you are that typeof person, you're over a
million, we of course love tosee if we can serve you guys.
Carly Ries (36:50):
Well, Luke, thank you so so much for coming on the
show today. This is such a greatdiscussion. And listeners, thank
you so much for tuning in. Asalways, leave that five star
review. Share this episode witha friend.
Subscribe on your favoriteplatform, including YouTube. And
we will see you next time on TheAspiring Solopreneur. You may be
going solo in business, but thatdoesn't mean you're alone. In
(37:13):
fact, millions of people are inyour shoes, running a one person
business and figuring it out asthey go. So why not connect with
them and learn from each other'ssuccesses and failures?
At LifeStarr, we're creating aone person business community
where you can go to meet and getadvice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
(37:33):
community.lifestarr.com.
If you've ever thought, I don't have a year to
(00:02):
wait for leads, this episode isyour shortcut. Luke Hessler, PR
pro and former affiliatebuilder, shares how to create
authority fast, even as anintrovert. Also, what to post
and why every day matters, andthe easiest place to find your
clients, and how to scalewithout employees once the
engine catches. This episode iscandid, tactical, and very real,
(00:23):
complete with the pre weddingbusiness implosion and the
rebuild that followed. Listen inand steal the steps.
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,
(00:43):
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
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
(01:04):
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 stumbles of
fellow solopreneurs, andpractical strategies for
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.
(02:08):
Luke, we told you offline thatwe are getting great vibes from
you from a first impressionstandpoint, and that you're
already so personable and we'rebecause of that, we're just so
happy to dive into this episodebecause I think a big part of
this show will be about kindahow solopreneurs can
differentiate themselves andstand out, which I think you
just did within the first threeseconds of us meeting you. But
(02:30):
before we dive in, just topiggyback off of, like, we like
this guy mode. You chose theicebreaker question that nobody
chooses, and so we are thrilledto ask, what is the wildest
thing that's happened to you asa solopreneur?
Luke Hessler (02:47):
Oh, I love this question. See, it's so
interesting that people don'tchoose it because it's like,
these are the best stories, youknow. So it's like, I love
sharing this stuff. I also am afirm believer in life that you
can learn a lot more from myscars than my accolades, you
know. So I like talking aboutthese interesting experiences
because they're real.
So, yeah, probably the thewildest thing that happened to
(03:09):
me was three days before I gotmarried, we had two things
happen. So at the time I had anagency and I was a solopreneur
at the agency, you know, in thesense that it was just me there
doing my thing. I did have afriend that was helping with the
finance side of things. And hewould basically give me reports,
all the time of where thenumbers were at and all of those
(03:32):
things. And this is my firsttime owning my own business, so
I just basically blindlylistened to the numbers that
were there.
And at the time, we werebasically reselling a software
that was really effective and ishelping people grow their
Instagram accounts, all thatkind of stuff. And then I wake
up one day and Instagram updatedtheir API so we could no longer
connect to it with the software,which essentially made our
service be completely obsolete.So I went from having like,
(03:56):
hundreds of clients that were onthis thing to it not working
overnight. Right? And so it'sjust one of those times where
like, alright, I have to pivotquickly.
So that in itself is a big wakeup call. But then I go to see
how much runway we have. Becausethere's a little cash in the
bank. And I was dumb enough,frankly, to always just listen
to the person that was doing thefinances.
(04:16):
He just give me a report. Ithink that's what the numbers
was. First time I'm actuallylooking at the bank account.
Again, stupid thing, I know. Butthe numbers the money wasn't
there.
And, come to find out the personthat was doing a lot of the
financing, there was some stuffthat happened there and, you
know, all these kinds of things,taking money, da da da da.
That's another long story. Soit's three days before my
wedding and I have, now nobusiness at zero. And I also
(04:40):
figured out all the money Ithought I had to be able to go
and, have runway to startsomething out was also at zero.
And the person was a relativelyclose friend.
He was invited to my wedding.And he was the person that ended
up doing this thing to me. soI had to relearn things quickly,
pivot, grow from it. But I willsay the positive in the story
that I took from it, apart fromobviously, you know, don't be
(05:01):
dumb and manage your financeswell, is the fact that it's like
even though I lost everything inthat moment, I was able to
rebuild it. And I was able torebuild it faster because I had
skills that I had learned fromthe time before.
And that was just something I'vealways taken with me, this
persistency because, any day youcan lose your business, you can
lose your income, but no one cantake away your mindset, no one
(05:23):
can take away your skills, noone can take away your
relationships, and you canrebuild just as fast as you lost
it. And so that was a that wasan important lesson for me to
learn.
Joe Rando (05:32):
unbelievable. the elephant in the room is, did
that guy come to the wedding?
Luke Hessler (05:39):
You know what? He actually did come to the
wedding. So, you know, I'mpersonally a Christian myself,
and so I'm like, you know, lookthe other way, do the things,
and so I forgave him and movedon and tried to apply those
principles there.
Joe Rando (05:51):
You're a better man than I.
Carly Ries (05:55):
Did your father-in-law know all this
happened three days before, andhow was that exchanged at the
aisle when you're looking?
Luke Hessler (06:01):
Great question. The answer is no. I kept this
one to myself, you know,throughout this. I'm like,
alright.
This is my problem. And soavoided that exchange until I
was able to provide thesolution, And then now it's a
good story. Now I can tell itbecause we have a solution to
the story.
Carly Ries (06:17):
Had to ask. As of being a bride, I had to ask.
Well, Luke, thank you so muchfor being that transparent and
just sharing that story. Andhopefully, is a lesson for
future guests. It's a good ideato share these types of stories.
But early on you built apersonal brand identity that
really resonated with people.And in the topic of like of just
(06:41):
standing out in a credit market,how important do you think
personal branding is forsolopreneurs today? And how
should they start with it?
Luke Hessler (06:50):
Yeah. That's a really good question. and for a
little context to my answer, myfirst business that I started
was I was in the affiliatemarketing world. And so I wasn't
really a solopreneur becausesomeone else was building the
product, doing all that kind ofstuff. But I got paid for
commissions by driving sales tothe website.
Joe Rando (07:06):
Stop. Stop. You're a solopreneur.
Luke Hessler (07:09):
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Joe Rando (07:11):
You're a solopreneur. No. Affiliate marketers can be
solopreneurs. It's okay ifsomebody else building it.
You didn't employ them. Youweren't giving them a w two.
Luke Hessler (07:19):
You know what? That's actually very true. Okay.
So I was solopreneur in thatworld. You're right.
Alright. Correct So I was stilla solopreneur in that world.
And, at that point, all you'redoing is marketing and sales.
That's the goal. And you getpaid commissions on what you do.
And if you can create a team andteach them how to do it, you get
override commissions on that. soI started this when I was 19
years old in college. I justwanted to figure out a way to
(07:40):
make money online. I knew thatwas the future. I wanted freedom
and wanted to go and figure thisthing out. And what ended up
happening for me is I struggleda lot in the beginning for
people to take me seriouslybecause I had no track record.
Was just college kid, frankly,at Michigan State University.
Why would anybody listen to me?But what I started to learn,
this is back in 2013, is that Ialways knew that first
(08:01):
impressions lasted a lifetime.My parents taught me that really
young, but I started to learnthat the first impression
oftentimes in the digital agewas in online first impression.
So it was like a Google searchor a social media search rather
than a handshake or aconversation.
And so when I anticipated thatand I realized that, I was like,
man, what if I started insteadof just posting random college
stuff online, I started to postpersonal development stuff,
(08:23):
talking about business, positionmyself as a professional, had a
professional profile picture,all these little things on
Facebook at the time. I'm like,then when I'm messaging these
people to see if they'reinterested in my product or
service, they're not gonna thinkthey're talking to some random
college dude, I'll actually beprofessional. Maybe they'll give
me the time of day behind that.And so that's when I consciously
started to really focus onbuilding my brand. And I saw
(08:43):
measurable results behind that.
And through just like, frankly,trial and error, I figured out
strategies to be able to go andbuild my personal brand. I
taught my team to do that. Andthat's why from '19 to '23, I
built an affiliate organizationof, you know, 30,000 people
across 50 states in 20 differentcountries. Average age was
probably 22 years old, and itwas all really on, personal
(09:04):
branding on social media andusing that to sell the products
essentially. And so I tell thatto be able to just say that that
is so important, and that's whyI do what I do today, which is,
you know, I'm in the PR world,the branding world, because we
tell people, listen, that firstimpression is a Google search or
a social media search, andthey're gonna judge you in a
matter of seconds.
And there it's gonna be a simpleunconscious judgment, like this
person's legit, this personisn't, whatever. But that moment
(09:27):
is gonna determine whether ornot they give you access to them
if there's a furtherconversation. And so positioning
yourself online as a credibleauthority in your space, I think
is so important. And I look atit as an asset.
I look at it as a digital asset.The bigger your brand is with
time, as more attention goesonline. And I think attention is
(09:47):
the currency of the digitaleconomy. That's gonna make that
asset be worth more and more andmore.
And if you can start to build areputation of being someone
who's known in your space for aparticular thing, referrals come
from that. If you're runningads, it helps to have the
conversion rates behind it. Andso that being said, I think it's
extremely important. The secondquestion is like what should
people do right now to startbuilding it? It's as simple as
(10:08):
just starting on social mediaand and committing to posting
once a day on whatever platformyou want.
You know, Facebook, Instagram,TikTok, yeah, they all have
their pros and cons, we can diveinto that later. But if you can
just pick a platform and you canactually focus on committing
content and posting it everysingle day for a year, it's a
muscle that you start to go andbuild. And you start to realize,
(10:28):
wait, I can just copy that postand put it over to another
platform, and now I'm posting onevery platform. Right? And
you'll start to, it's also apositive feedback loop.
I think of it like going intothe gym. You know, if you're
overweight, you go to the gym,that first workout, you don't
see a bunch of success. You makethat first post, no one engages
with it. Right?
But it's a process, and if youcommit to it, that's why I say
for a year, you will start tosee that progress and you start
(10:50):
to build this muscle of creatingcontent. And it actually, you
know, for me, it becomes kindafun, to be able to go out there
and do. So I think that's thefirst step that people need to
go and commit to is pick aplatform that you feel
comfortable creating content onand just create on it every day
for a year, and it's an amazingstart.
Joe Rando (11:05):
Can I back up for a second because of clarification?
We're using the term building apersonal brand, a personal
brand. And I have a picture inmy head that maybe matches other
people's, maybe doesn't. I don'tknow.
But I always think of a personalbrand as something that not
(11:26):
everybody can do it. Noteverybody has the personality to
build a personal brand, and somepeople are really good at it,
and other people even if you doall the steps, it's not gonna
work as well. You know, if youlike, you have a great
personality. Carly's anextrovert. I'm an introvert.
Right? So I'm the kind of personthat given the choice between
posting on social media orgetting, in front of the camera
(11:47):
and Getting in front of aspreadsheet or, whatever, I'm
gonna pick the spreadsheet. Andso I'm just wondering what your
take is on generally aboutpersonal brand. Can anybody
develop a personal brand?
And follow on since you wentinto social media, you say post
every day, but there's gotta besome kind of best practices for
(12:08):
what you post, how you post sothat it's not just, you know,
content for the sake of content.
Luke Hessler (12:15):
Yeah. Great great question. So to answer the first
one is, like, are there certainpeople that are right for the
personal brand versus not? Youknow, I am of the belief that
everyone should build a personalbrand. but I think that the
brand needs to be your authenticvoice.
And what I mean by that is thatpeople like myself or it sounds
like Carly, who are moreextroverted in things like this,
(12:36):
maybe we're gonna thrive on avideo platform, you know, where
we can just talk and do ourthings and make that stuff
happen. And that's amazing. Andthat's gonna be most comfortable
for us. Someone who's moreanalytical and thought,
provoking like yourself, maybeit's more like taking time to go
out there and, do written postsand you're providing content and
insight and strategies andinsight and that type of the
thing. But my point is thatpeople like people who are like
(12:57):
them.
And so there are a lot of peopleon social media right now that
think the same way that you do.They're much more analytical.
They're much more logical andthey actually like the slower
talking, more detail, that typeof thing. And they're attracted
to that because that's who theyare. And so you can build an
audience of people who are likeyou in the same way that
somebody who is, more like me,extroverted, you know, speaking
(13:18):
loud and things like this, like,they would be more attracted to
me.
And so I challenge people whenthey say, hey, I'm just not the
personality for a personalbrand. I'm like, I don't know
about that. It's like becauseall a personal brand is to me is
taking who you are offline andputting that online. That's the
idea. Is that when I work withsomeone, it's like I wanna take
your authentic offlinereputation and I wanna copy and
(13:40):
paste that online.
So when people look you up andsee your content, they get the
same impact as if they had aconversation with you. And they
feel like they know you becauseof that being there. Because if
you don't have that content upthere, you leave it up for
interpretation, whatever thealgorithm pushes up or whatever
that may go and be, and people'sminds go a little bit crazy. So
I do actually think that anyonecan go and build a personal
(14:01):
brand in that way. What wassecond question, what was the
follow-up?
Joe Rando (14:05):
Just you said, pick a social media platform and post
every day.
Luke Hessler (14:09):
Yeah.
Joe Rando (14:10):
But it's gotta be more than just posting. Because
I mean, I can post every dayabout my dog, but I wouldn't do
a lot for my solopreneurbusiness.
Luke Hessler (14:18):
Yeah. So No. Great question.
Carly Ries (14:19):
Would, because he's a cute dog. So Yeah.
Luke Hessler (14:22):
If he had a cute dog, maybe that'll help. I would
say this. I say two things withit. So number one is it's almost
like, again, somebody who isextremely you know, I have a
friend, for example, who's fourhundred pound he was four
hundred pounds. He lost 200pounds.
He heeded body program, and nowhe helps people with, like,
massively obese bodytransformations. That's his
thing. And whenever he workswith somebody for the first
(14:43):
time, the goal is not to go tothe gym and do all these, here's
your workout routine and go dothat. It's just like, go for a
walk. Walk go for a walk.
And a walk can be literally tothe end of your driveway and
back. And then you maybe go alittle bit further the next day,
and then a little bit furtherthe next day. And you just start
taking this small incrementalsteps that's a little bit better
than where you're at today. Andso when I talk about the
(15:04):
personal branding thingcommitting to going in and
posting, it's kind of likesomeone committing to just going
to the gym. You're notcommitting to the specific lifts
you're gonna do when you go tothe gym.
You're just committing thatyou're gonna actually go to the
gym. And if you show up to thegym, you're probably not just
gonna show up and leave. You'regonna pick up some weights and
start doing some stuff. And sothe concept of posting is just
building that muscle of postingsome sort of a content.
(15:25):
Now when we're talking aboutwhat do you post, that's a
little bit of a different story.You know, I always teach people
to create content buckets. Andso what I mean by that is think
of them like pillars of yourbrand. So if you think of like
who you are, for me, I do likemy family, I have business
stuff, and then I have lifestylethings, you know. And those are
kind of like all the contentthat I post is like falling
within those three buckets.
(15:46):
And so we talk about kind oflike posting your dog. It's not
gonna do much for yoursolopreneur business, but you'd
be surprised. Some people aredog people, and they just see
that side of you, and they'relike, oh, wow. He's a dog
person. Me too.
And now there's some,relatability that's being there
with some person. So I don't sayonly post your business stuff
twenty four seven. Post who youare, you know. And from a
business standpoint, there doesneed to be some strategy there.
(16:08):
So like for me, for example,we're working with a lot of
people who are thought leaders.So like consultants or coaches
or things like this. And so I'mgoing to be posting content
that's relevant to thataudience. Like, I'm not posting
about real estate because thathas nothing to do with my
audience that's there. And sowhen it does come to posting,
you do wanna think about, okay,who is the person that I'm
intending this to go to?
(16:29):
Like, who am I creating thiscontent for? And what problems
do those people have that I cansolve with this content? And you
create the content with the enduser in mind. I like to think of
it as if I'm just talking to oneperson, and I'm just talking to
one person, was a conversation,they have a problem, and I'm
just talking them through that.And I'll pretend I'm having that
conversation to then create thatcontent around that.
(16:53):
And it's really helpful withthat way. And so I would say,
again, that the key is justshowing up and being there. If
you actually show up and postevery single day, I guarantee
you, you will start to figureout the content because you're
gonna get sick of posting yourdog every single day. You're
gonna be like, I gotta actuallypost something else. And then
you're gonna think about whatelse should I post?
And you'll start to kinda startthis creative process of
(17:14):
figuring it out. And quitefrankly, you'll never know if
you have the perfect you'renever gonna have the perfect
content. But you use theengagement as a feedback loop.
Like, you'll make one post thatgets a lot more engagement than
the other ones, and you're like,oh, people like this topic. Now
how can I create otheriterations off of that one?
And now your focus is morearound that thing. So if you are
showing up and you are postingbased on the engagement, you'll
(17:35):
get feedback of what type ofcontent your audience resonates
with, and then you iteratearound that.
Joe Rando (17:40):
Yeah. Definitely makes sense. Thank you.
Luke Hessler (17:43):
Yeah. Great questions.
Carly Ries (17:44):
I Wanna circle back for a sec because you kinda went
through something reallyquickly. Can you restate those
stats of when you scaled youraffiliate business? Because
those were mind blowing, and Iwant you to restate them because
I have a question for you afterthat.
Luke Hessler (17:59):
Yeah. Absolutely. So We scaled it from when I was
19 to 23. We scaled it from meto about 30,000 people across 50
states in 20 differentcountries.
Joe Rando (18:09):
What were you selling?
Luke Hessler (18:10):
It was a health and wellness product, a healthy
energy drink, believe it or not.
Carly Ries (18:15):
Well, so I wanted you to reiterate that because I
think one of the things thatsolopreneurs mess up a lot is
scaling. And they try to do ittoo quickly or they don't have
the timing rate. You clearlyscaled something well. What
advice do you have forsolopreneurs who want to scale
without employees, and any redflags that they should avoid?
Luke Hessler (18:36):
Yeah. It's a great question. The answer is number
one is you have to have yourfulfillment dialed in. Like if
you're selling whatever service,you have to make sure that that
can be fulfilled with some sortof a partner that can take that
taken care of.
So if you're all in webservices, make sure whoever's
creating your website has thecapacity to take on a lot more
clients, right? Or whatever theservice is, if you're kind of
(18:57):
have vendors that are there. Andso you have to have the back end
in place. That's like the firstmost important thing to scale.
Because if that's not in place,you can create all these new
sales, but then customers aren'thappy and then it starts to go
in the wrong direction.
And so I would say that's themost important thing is having
that foundation in place. And ifyou can get the foundation for
your fulfillment in place, then,like for me, that's what I was
(19:18):
saying. Was like, okay, notreally a total sole
entrepreneur, but I was. Youknow, you're right. You
corrected that because I workedwith a company that already had
like, their whole model is like,we do the fulfillment, you guys
do the distribution. so all Ihad to do is focus on the
distribution, and that was theonly thing that was there. And
so it was so simple for me toscale because literally
everything in the back endworked, all the technology, all
the fulfillment, everything, Idecided to get people to click
(19:39):
buy, and I knew everything elsewas taken care of. So that's
really important to have.
Carly Ries (19:44):
Okay. that's great. But yeah. It was just so funny
because you mentioned that. AndI was like, that sounds like a
big number.
Luke Hessler (19:52):
It was pretty cool. And another thing to
mention, think it's worthtalking about on that is that, I
also had no experience beforethat. I was a dumb frat rat
college kid at 19, you know, Ihad no experience. And just
frankly, had some things happen.I made bad choices in my life
where I was just like, alright,I gotta get my life together. I
had like this naivety enough tobelieve that I could go and do
(20:13):
it. You know, it was like thiscompany had been around for, a
long time. I mean, not thatlong, but ten years, you know,
before I got into it. And, theyhadn't done over $71,000,000 in
sales, you know? And then westarted this kind of like young
person thing within it.
And we took the company to Ithink $230,000,000 in sales. And
so the point is it's likesometimes you just have to have
(20:35):
the courage to try, and there'sa certain level of naivety that
does have to go in it. Becauseif I looked at the stats of what
percentage of people succeed andthis type of stuff, like, was
all working against me. I had noprior anything, But with the
right, I guess, ambition anddream ambition, as long as you
continue to learn and grow,anyone can really go make
anything happen.
So don't let your past hold youback from starting. I think
(20:56):
that's a big thing for people.
Joe Rando (20:58):
I used to work with a guy that had a saying, which
was, we can do anything becausewe're stupid. I love that. And
it's true. you see so manyamazing things happen from
people that weren't educated,knowledgeable enough to know
that everybody believed itcouldn't be done and just went
and did it.
I love that. I love your story.
Luke Hessler (21:19):
Yeah.
Carly Ries (21:20):
so so good. Well, so Mhmm. Okay. You were talking
about you run a PR firm now andyou help people stand out and
help them get leads andeverything. But my question, so
we were talking about socialmedia and the putting in the
reps for a year, but what ifthere's a solopreneur that has
limited time, limited budget,and they're like, well, Luke,
(21:42):
that's cute and all, but I don'thave a year to start bringing in
leads. what would you say is themost cost effective efficient
way to generate leads forSilicon these days?
Luke Hessler (21:55):
Yeah. That's a really good question. So the way
that I did it when I firststarted is you start off with
your warm market that you have.So everyone knows people, and
you know people who know people.And the people closest to you,
sometimes they don't supportyou, you know, and that's tough,
I dealt with that.
But oftentimes, they do alsoreally want you to go and
(22:15):
succeed. And so just creating alist of people that you know, I
mean, literally, I took pen andpaper and just sat down of like,
who are the people that I knowthat could potentially be
interested in this? And I justwrote down a name. I just sat
there and built as big of a listas I possibly could. And then I
literally just called everysingle person and just saw if
they'd be interested in what itis that I was doing. I'll also
(22:38):
say this, in the very beginning,if you're in the very, very,
very beginning of what you'redoing, people may not trust you
yet. Because you're juststarting this thing. And so
another thing that I did in thebeginning that worked well is
that I created what I called itquote unquote beta group. And so
basically, it was just somepeople that I was doing services
for free in exchange fortestimonials and for case
(23:02):
studies.
And I would go and do that. Andso I would say, hey. I wanna do
the service for you. I'll do itfor free. This is what I want in
exchange.
If you like it, make atestimonial, record a case study
for me. And if you know anyone,if you make an introduction,
that would be amazing. And thatis a great way to build goodwill
with people. Build up some casestudies because that again,
(23:24):
you're just starting off. Sopeople are like, do they
actually know what they'redoing?
And if you can be like, yes,look at what this person's
experience was. Look at whatthis person's experience was.
And then you also build somepositive goodwill within your
network because a lot of stuffin the beginning comes from warm
market referrals. That's justthe reality of it Until you can
start to invest into some sortof form of marketing.
Carly Ries (23:42):
Yeah. I know. so many people that we've had on
this show have been like, Iforgot to tell people what I do.
it's like, oh, and I tell afunny story of, over a decade
ago, listening in on aconversation my parents were
having. And they were like,yeah, she's a creative director
for an ad agency.
I didn't work at an ad agencyand I have never been a creative
(24:04):
director. And it's just likethose low hanging fruits that
you don't think about, like yourwarm list and all of that. Where
it's oh, yeah. Like that, peoplethink it has to be so
complicated and they have to gobuy these best practices from a
marketing formula and it can beas simple as what you just said.
Luke Hessler (24:20):
Yeah. I mean, I try to get people to just think
of it as math. Like, it'sliterally just a law of
averages, you know. there's acertain number of people out
there who are interested in yourservices and a certain number of
people that aren't. Okay?
And your job is not to convincethe ones who aren't to want it.
It's to sort through all of themto find the ones who are looking
for what you have. that's thegoal. And you can do that, with
ads.
You can do that with, high coldoutreach and, automated email
(24:43):
campaigns and all these types ofthings. But you can also do that
by just writing down a list andcalling people. And so it's just
the numbers have to make sense.That's it, you know?
It's like there's a law ofaverages. Again, you do
something often enough, a ratioappears. You call 10 people,
maybe one of them is interested,right? So now you have a 10%
conversion rate.
You want 10 clients, call a 100people, you know? and whatever
your rates are. I think you justhave to have the grit to be
(25:07):
willing to kind of like trudgethrough the mud and get a bunch
of these no's in order to findthe few yeses, that are there.
But I think that's challengingfor people because especially if
you're a first time solopreneur,it feels very vulnerable, and
you're putting yourself outthere. And sometimes when people
say no to your business, you canfeel like they're saying no to
you as a person because it'ssuch a personal part of you.
(25:28):
So you almost take it as apersonal rejection. And it's
not. They're just not ready forthe business. So you move on and
go to the next one. But somepeople can't get through that
kind of emotional gymnastics ormental gymnastics that it holds
them back from making all thosephone calls or doing the things
that you need to do or postingon the brand because they're
scared of what people think. Andjust you if you wanna be
successful as solopreneur, youcan't have that. You have to get
(25:49):
through that fear. And the onlyway you get through that fear is
by running straight at it anddoing it even though you're
scared, you know. And then youstart to realize, oh, it's
wasn't so scary,
Carly Ries (25:59):
Well, so if you were just starting out today, I'm
assuming this would be one ofthe first things that you would
do, but what else would you doto start building momentum?
This, posting every day,anything else? If you were your
19 year old self right now, withyour current business, what
would you do?
Luke Hessler (26:16):
Well, I mean, as a solopreneur, the first goal is
to get profitable. Right? Like,that's the first goal. So for
me, if I started up a businesstoday, the very first thing I
would do is figure out, how canI get profitable as quickly as
possible? I would try to get myfirst few customers that are
there. But the reason I would dothat is because I already have
the mindset with it. Like, if Iwas talking to my 19 year old
(26:37):
self yet who'd never done thisbefore, the first thing I would
do is get his head straight, andstart to get them expectations,
managed a little bit. I think somany people also see these
people on Instagram living thesecrazy lifestyles and they think
it happens overnight and itdoesn't. It takes time, you
know. Like, I try to tell peoplethink in decades instead of
days, and it's hard to do intoday's society. But if you can
(26:58):
have that long term mindset, ifyou can have the resilience and
understand that, every no isjust taking you closer to
another yes, you know? And youget that mindset with it, And so
I would really try to reallycommunicate to myself having the
correct mindset aroundentrepreneurship and
(27:18):
solopreneurship.
And I think if you get thatstraight, the tactics and the
techniques, you will eventuallyfigure them out. I mean, there's
the story of I think it wasThomas Edison, creating the
light bulb. You know? He failedso many times.
He was interviewed like, youfailed 10,000 times creating the
incandescent light bulb. Whydidn't you quit? And he answered
by saying, you see, that's thedifference between you and me. I
(27:39):
didn't fail 10,000 times. I justfound 10,000 ways that didn't
work. And I eventually figuredout a way that works. And so the
way the most of the world lookat is 10,000 failures. He looked
at it as 10,000 successes causehe figured out all the ways that
didn't work. And it's a simpleshift in the way you think, but
it makes all the difference, Ithink.
Carly Ries (27:57):
Mhmm. I love love that. That's right on. you know,
you find those failures andpeople get pushed down. They
just feel like, I can't do this,and it's like, no. No. You just
figured out something thatdoesn't work. Great great
perspective.
Well and I feel like if I werelistening to this episode, I'm
like, okay. I need to figure outwhat's profitable. I need to do
(28:18):
social. I need to reach out tomy warm leads. There's so much
to do and I feel it's kinda likea hustle hustle hustle hustle,
get it done.
But you're not big on hustling,at least not anymore. I imagine
your 19 year old self may havebeen scrappy
Luke Hessler (28:31):
yeah yeah.
Carly Ries (28:32):
Or just trying, because you could. But for
solopreneurs that got intosolopreneurship for a lifestyle
and to make it to their kidsballet or recital or whatever,
what kind of systems can theyput in place so that they're not
working around the clock, notconstantly hustling, and
actually living a well balancedlife?
Luke Hessler (28:52):
Yeah. That's a really good question. In my
opinion, you know, it's myexperience. Okay? In my personal
experience within it, I actuallydo think you have to have a
little hustle beginning.
You know? I really do.
I think of it like a like a jetplane taking off. If you look at
the fuel, they use 80% of theirfuel on takeoff. but then once
they're up there, they can justglide with it, and it's pretty
(29:15):
simple to go and do. So to, getthe rocket to take off, to get
the thing off the tarmac, ittakes a certain level of energy.
And there are sacrifices thathave to go out there and be
made. And that's it. That's anunavoidable reality is what I
found in my career.
Once you do it, you know, onceyou figure it out, then you can
(29:35):
build systems around all ofthese things. like, take the
most important thing to buildthe system around is customer
acquisition. Like, how can youconsistently and predictably
create customers? And for you,what is that model? There are so
many different strategies. Youcan create a lead, a landing
page, and drive traffic to that.You can go and do an affiliate
program, and maybe affiliatesare referring people to you in
that way.
Maybe you're doing cold outboundon email. You find a vendor that
(29:57):
sends a bunch of emails on yourbehalf, and they set up leads
for you. Right? there are somany different ways that you can
go out there and do this. So thespecific tactics and strategies
are unlimited.
But you have to figure out thecore basics of number one, like,
who is my customer, and how do Isolve the problems? And you have
to figure that out and then justbe like, how can I consistently
(30:17):
get them in front of me? Andagain, I wish I had an answer
where it's like, if you'restarting out today, you do A, B
and C software and you can workhours a week and make, you know,
5,000 a month for the rest ofyour life. but in my experience,
that dream is not real. And youhave to actually put in a short
term sacrifice to get this thinggoing. And so for me, I had to
(30:38):
restart, right, like, with mywife when we got married and
restart, like, I'd have aconversation with her. I was
like, listen, I went back tozero just so you know. Alright?
So I need to build this and it'sgonna take a lot of energy and
effort, And I want you to knowthat, I'm doing this for you
and, if it ever gets too muchand you need more of me, I need
you to communicate that to me.But right now, I just have to
get this going for us and ourfuture family. And it was a lot
(31:01):
of work in the beginning.
But as you mentioned, as youstart to build them out, you can
systemize this with especiallywith software and technology and
everything that you have now,like, you can basically take the
things you were doing manuallyand you just automate that,
Like, you get a technology tocome in and do it for you. You
get a vendor to go in and do itfor you. So I think first you
gotta figure out what works bygoing through that process, but
then after you figure out itworks, the next question is
(31:22):
like, alright, how can Ioutsource it essentially? how
can I leverage this through asoftware or maybe a third party
vendor that can do this for me?
And then you get that time backand you work on the next thing,
you know? And you just do thatthroughout your business until
all the components of it havebeen, outsourced essentially
through technology or some sortof a support vendor. And that's
when you can have this freedom,to really do what you want. But
(31:43):
I really think it's unrealisticto think that happens in the
beginning. I think you gotta putin some time.
r the other thing is thatthere's a certain amount of time
that's required, and if youdon't kinda sprint at it, is
what I have done in the past,you can do it slower, but you
just then have to understandit's gonna take time. Like let's
call it a hundred hours. Right?Like it's more than that. But
just call it a hundred hours,it's like I could freaking grind
(32:06):
out a hundred hours in a weekand just go crazy with it.
And then I'm done in a week. Oryou can do, you know, one hour a
day for a hundred days, and it'sgonna take you a hundred days to
get that done. But you gotta dothe hour. You gotta put the
hours in regardless of how oftenyou're gonna go and do it. So I
think you also kinda have tomatch what sacrifices are you
willing to do, with your desiredoutcomes.
And then that kind of canstructure the lifestyle around
(32:28):
that a little bit.
Joe Rando (32:31):
that's a topic I'm really interested in. And I have
a thought on it, and I want yourtake on what I think. And that
is that if you have a choicebetween, a hundred hours in a
week and a hundred hours in ayear or whatever, there's a
sweet spot where you're going toif you do it in a week, you're
(32:51):
not gonna be learning in betweenthose hours so that that next
hour is optimized, and there'san optimal amount of time to
kinda sprint, that works thebest for kind of learning
lessons, processing stuff, andbeing able to implement it and
adjust as you go. Would youagree with that?
Like, you don't wanna be doing ahundred hours for six months.
(33:12):
You're better off doing, youknow, fifty hours for a year
because you'll wind up with abetter result. It may take
longer, but
Luke Hessler (33:20):
That a good question. Yeah. No. It's a good
question. I can only answerbased off of my experience. I
think it's really a personalitytype and probably, an
environmental situation typebecause it's like when I first
started at 19, it really wasjust the grind. Like, it was all
I thought about all the timetwenty four seven, and it
actually helped me iteratequicker because it wasn't like I
(33:41):
had an idea and then I put itdown for a day and then had to
come back and be like, what wasI thinking? It was like I could
just quickly go through all ofthat kind of stuff.
So at that time in my life, Iwas single, I had no
responsibilities, I had nofamily, I had no anything. And
so it allowed me to likeactually put in that time and
focus and still reflect on it.And so, but I think that's a
unique situation. I think formost people, what you just said
(34:03):
is probably the best thing forthem. Because at the end of the
day, you have to make it besustainable. Because if you put
in a hundred hours in a week andthen you're burned out and you
never do anything after that,it's no good, you know? And so
you have to know your ownendurance, with this. Like we
are running a marathon, And it'slike, you can't sprint an entire
marathon, that's the reality ofit,
And so it's like, I think a lotof it is also just knowing who
(34:26):
you are and what you can do andnot burning yourself out and
realizing that this is a longterm commitment. So if you had
to choose a hundred hour sprintburnout versus, you know, a
hundred hours in a year orwhatever, but it's consistent
and then you can do that nextyear and then the year after
that and the year after that andthe year after that, the latter
of the two is always the theright choice, I think. Yeah.
Great question on that.
Carly Ries (34:44):
Well, Luke, you've had such great nuggets
throughout this episode, and Ijust think this will help so
many people. So I have to askyou, what is your favorite quote
about success? Oh, my favoritequote about success. I think
it's this Zig Ziglar quote. It'syou can get anything you want in
the world by helping enoughother people get what they want.
Or you can get anything you wantin the world by yeah. That's
what it is. By helping enoughother people get what they want.
(35:06):
And that's kind of ourphilosophy. It's our ethos of
what we do here. You know, ourmission statement at Ace
Branding is to serve those whoserve others.
Luke Hessler (35:12):
So we wanna go find impact driven thought
leaders, entrepreneurs, andbusinesses, and amplify their
voice through digital PR. So Ilook at everything we do as
service, you know, even oursales team, when we teach our
philosophy around sales, it's toplay the numbers game without
making people feel like a numberbecause they aren't. And
there are kinda three componentsto that, but the most important
part is the comma at the endwhere it says because they
(35:34):
aren't because that's a corebelief of ours.
It's like we are talking topeople, humans that have real
lives and real things going on,and they're not just a number.
we need to get to know thesepeople and genuinely figure out
how can we serve them and howcan we help them. And by doing
that, it leads to long termretention. It leads to all these
great things that have greatbusiness outcomes, but I think
that ethos behind it is reallyreally important.
Carly Ries (35:56):
Mhmm. Well, and Luke, you've been such a trooper
because we had all thesequestions we wanted to ask you
about your solo journey, and wedidn't even mention ACE branding
yet. I mean, you just talkedabout it a little bit, but where
could people find out more aboutyou, more about the company?
Give us all the links that wecan include in our show notes.
Luke Hessler (36:14):
Yeah. Just go to acebranding.com. You guys can
all look at my Instagram. It'sLuke_Hessler if you wanna go it
out there. And, I kinda gave alittle bit of what it is.
But but, yeah, I think for us,it's I tell people, you focus on
PR after you get the marketingstuff dialed in. So for you guys
that are, solopreneurs in thevery beginning, frankly, I would
not be investing my resources inPR at this point. You know, I
think if you're a company that'sdoing like a million a year
(36:36):
looking to scale, PR is abeautiful thing to go out there
and do. And it makes a ton ofsense, at that point. I always
like to just tell people who itis and who it isn't for as well.
But, yeah, if you are that typeof person, you're over a
million, we of course love tosee if we can serve you guys.
Carly Ries (36:50):
Well, Luke, thank you so so much for coming on the
show today. This is such a greatdiscussion. And listeners, thank
you so much for tuning in. Asalways, leave that five star
review. Share this episode witha friend.
Subscribe on your favoriteplatform, including YouTube. And
we will see you next time on TheAspiring Solopreneur. You may be
going solo in business, but thatdoesn't mean you're alone. In
(37:13):
fact, millions of people are inyour shoes, running a one person
business and figuring it out asthey go. So why not connect with
them and learn from each other'ssuccesses and failures?
At LifeStarr, we're creating aone person business community
where you can go to meet and getadvice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
(37:33):
community.lifestarr.com.
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