November 18, 2025 • 26 mins
What happens when the Wild West days of early internet marketing collide with the deeply human side of AI? In this episode, Steven Sakach from aiCMO joins Carly to talk about blending empathy with innovation (yes, even in a world that often feels robotic and copy-and-paste). From his outrageous early-career bidding wars to his BLISS framework (Build Love Into Scalable Systems), Steven shows solopreneurs how AI can actually make your business more human, not less.
If you want to use AI without losing your voice, deepen emotional connection with your clients, and build systems infused with purpose (and love), this is your episode.
FAQs From The Episode
How do I keep my marketing from sounding generic when using AI?
The key is anchoring your AI-generated content in your purpose, values, and voice. Stephen’s platform (and the approach he recommends) starts with defining your higher purpose — what you actually care about, who you serve, and why you do what you do. When AI has that context, plus your differentiators and brand voice, it stops producing “same-same” results and starts sounding unmistakably like you.
How do I use AI without losing authenticity or connection with my audience?
You deepen authenticity before you generate content. Ask AI to help you understand your customers’ emotional journey — what fears they have, what delights them, what frustrations they experience. Once you understand the emotional landscape, AI can help you create “surprise and delight” moments, strengthen connection, and design experiences that feel personal and human. Authenticity comes from clarity, not from avoiding AI.
What systems should I build first if I want to grow but stay true to my values?
Stephen suggests starting with BLISS: Build Love Into Scalable Systems. That means creating processes that aren’t just efficient, but kind — onboarding steps that lower anxiety, feedback loops that keep you aligned with client needs, and systems that consider impact on people and planet, not just profit. When you systemize kindness and empathy, your values show up consistently, not just when you remember.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carly Ries (00:00):
AI can feel cold and robotic, but Stephen Sakach is
(00:02):
here to flip that script. Inthis episode, he shares how
solopreneurs can use AI todeepen human connection and not
lose it. From surviving the WildWest days of Internet marketing
to creating bliss or build loveinto scalable systems, Steven
breaks down how to stayauthentic, avoid burnout, and
build a business rooted inempathy. You're listening to The
(00:23):
Aspiring Solopreneur, thepodcast for anyone on the solo
business journey, whether you'rejust toying with the idea,
taking your first bold step, orhave been running your own show
for years and want to keepgrowing, refining, and thriving.
I'm Carly Ries, and along withmy cohost, Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
(00:43):
of one.
As part of LifeStarr, a digitalhub dedicated to all things
solar ownership, we help peopledesign businesses that align
with their life's ambitions sothey can work to live, not live
to work. If you're looking for aget rich quick scheme, this is
not the place for you. But ifyou want real world insights
from industry experts, lessonsfrom the successes and stumbles
of fellow solopreneurs, andpractical strategies for
(01:06):
building and sustaining abusiness you love, you're in the
right spot. Because flying soloin business doesn't mean you're
alone. No matter where you areon your journey, we've got your
back.
Steven, I am so happy thatyou're on the show today because
(02:02):
I just signed up for aconference I was telling you
about next week and it feelslike everything is about AI. But
I feel like when people think ofAI, they think robotic or it
sounds like everybody else. Andyou kind of bring that human
connection back to AI, I think,which is a lot like we work with
this guy, George B. Thomas, andhe's like, the center of
everything is humanity andconnecting. So I can't wait to
(02:25):
talk to you about everythingwe're going to dive into today.
But before we do, I have anicebreaker question for you. I'm
so excited because you pickedthe one that we love when guests
pick this because we think thefunniest stories come out of it.
But what is the wildest thingthat has happened to you as a
solopreneur?
Stephen Sakach (02:41):
So my solopreneur career started when
the internet was invented. So wedid not have that when I was in
a kid or when I was in college.So this was really kind of the
birth of digital marketing. Iwould say this is the wild west
days of Internet marketing. So Ihad a regular nine to five job.
(03:02):
I would come home and I wouldsit on my bed with my laptop and
figured out search enginemarketing. And there was this
thing, you know, that all theSEO purists back then were mad
about, and that was paid search.And literally, this was like the
invention of paid search. AndI'm like, oh, so this is the
future. So I hopped on therewith a company called goto.com
(03:24):
we get into.
And I would be in there and Itaught myself how to build these
crude web pages and everything.I'd be in there and selling
stuff. But back then, you couldsee what everybody was bidding
against each other. And so itbecame really personal with
bidding against each other. Butit also became this form of
(03:45):
torture.
Right? Cause you know if youfell out of first place or into
second place, that could costyou thousands of dollars. And so
during the holidays, you were onyour computer. It's pretty much
if you could skip sleep, youwould because you just couldn't
help but be on there because youknow someone's changing that bid
on you. So it was this form ofmadness that we were just locked
(04:07):
into back then.
And we're just bidding, bidding,bidding. Eventually, my goal was
to make money so when we hadkids, you know, we could be able
to afford them. And so I endedup at one point, I'm starting to
make more money than I'm makingat my day job. And, you know,
that bidding thing where if I'mnot there doing that, I'm losing
(04:29):
money going to work. So I waslosing money going to work for
my day job.
And it's like, okay. well,obviously, I've gotta quit that.
At the time, I was working formy mother. It's like, sorry,
mom.
Carly Ries (04:43):
At least she'll love you regardless.
Stephen Sakach (04:45):
I know. At least she'll love me regardless, but
it was like a couple years afterdivorce, and she's taken over
this business. And, we're atleast having record years, and
I'm like, alright. You're ingood hands. I gotta go do this.
But finally, after three or fouryears of doing this, this
madness with these bidding,especially during the holidays,
they finally made the bidsdisappear. And that was, like,
(05:09):
sweet release from this torturethat I didn't know I was putting
myself through for severalyears. And it was like, oh my
gosh. I can't see what everyoneelse is doing anymore. Oh,
suddenly, I just felt, aliveagain.
But it was, these awful earlydays of the Wild West Internet.
it was just madness back then.
Carly Ries (05:30):
You see that because it sounds like you're in the
trenches, so much what you donow revolves around empathy. And
I'm like, do you just haveempathy for people because of
what you went through?
Stephen Sakach (05:39):
Yeah. I mean, I was young, and there was no
empathy for myself. It's justlike, you know, Gen X. We like
to grind, I think, a lot. And soit was like, yeah, this is just
what you you do.
But, yeah, for sure, that jobsatisfaction, that work life
balance stuff, Yeah, I wasfeeling it there. You don't want
(06:01):
to get that burnout.
Carly Ries (06:02):
I'm sure. Well, speaking of empathy, you have
this acronym BLISS, Build LoveInto Scalable Systems. What
inspired you to, if it wasn'tthat, what inspired you to bring
empathy into business in thistangible concrete way?
Stephen Sakach (06:18):
Yeah, so there's this stage in kind of your
entrepreneurial journey whereyou need help at some point if
you're doing well. Start toscale. And these days that
scaling could come from even anAI agent. Right? It could be.
And you could still be that soloentrepreneur there. But when you
scale, you start to systemize.And so what worried me at the
(06:40):
time, we were starting to growas a company. So I went from
that solopreneur to 40 people.And we're going growing pretty
fast at one point.
And so what I was worried aboutwas the loss of culture. Because
before, it could just be me oneon one with the clients. You
know? And I know that thingswere gonna be done kind of the
(07:01):
way we wanted to do with kind ofthat empathetic approach, really
caring about the best interestsof the clients. But I couldn't
oversee everything now.
So it's like, we need a guidingprinciple. And so we came up
with, build love into scalablesystems. How can we build love
into what we're doing? Andreally, this became the north
star of everything we're doing.So no matter what we're doing,
(07:23):
whatever part of our business,it was a check-in. it's like,
well, how can we build love intothis? And I think, you might
find when you're doing this,which certainly we did, was
really how you are really inservice to others. Because this
is this very kind of empatheticprocess, this loving process.
You go through all these stagesof understanding your clients
(07:45):
and your customers and yourfellow employees. So through
that, you might also find yourhigher purpose in that process.
So what we did was justbasically audit our business by
love. It's like, how can webuild love into this? And just
keep asking that question? Andit's like little by little, you
know, a little made a lot, andit started just changing our
culture, even changing theapproach to marketing that we do
(08:06):
to really get into this sort ofempathetic marketing approach to
to what we're doing.
Carly Ries (08:12):
Well, I love this because you're talking about
this with your team, but a lotof the times solopreneurs work
with contractors and a lot ofcontractors who aren't actual
employees, but you still have toput processes together, if not
more so when they're not underyour employee umbrella. So what
can solopreneurs be doing as afirst step to building love into
their systems?
Stephen Sakach (08:33):
Yeah. I think, just by asking that question,
that's a mind shift change forsure. it really is just taking
an empathetic look at maybe howyou onboard clients. What
emotions are they going through?
What are they worried about? Howare you showing up where you can
(08:54):
alleviate that? Or like yourcontractors, are we making sure
we're doing this the way wewanna do it? So we studied
corporate scandals and we kindabroke down their systems where
they ultimately failed. And Ithink there were a couple key
areas in the systems.
And they're both very empatheticparts of a system. You don't
(09:15):
really think of that, but thesewere the key areas. And one was
the feedback loop of a system.So, a system goes through all
these processes and in the end,there's a feedback loop. So in
the scandal companies, it wasalways either ignored or buried
or not paid attention to.
So as a solopreneur, I think youreally need to kinda actively
pursue that feedback from thecustomers you serve. that's
(09:39):
really kind of vital becausethat's gonna keep you in that
empathetic mindset. The otherkey area where things broke down
was around purpose. The purposeof the system or the purpose of
the business. So if it wasn't anempathetic purpose, if my sole
purpose was profit, well, thenyou aren't asking, how does this
(09:59):
part of my business impact theenvironment?
Or how does this impact thewell-being of customers? Am I
selling something that's not intheir best interest? this is
where you really get goingsideways sometimes with your
business is when you're notreally looking at all the
different ways you affectpeople. Like you mentioned, if
you've got partners that you'reworking with or contracting to,
(10:23):
you're affecting them as well.There's a relationship here that
you can look into.
Your clients. You really wannalook at that through their
eyesight. Kind of what they'regoing through as a client of
yours. But the more we canexpand our perspective This is
how we evolve consciously. ifyou're looking at the evolution
(10:43):
of consciousness in humans, it'sreally our ability to take on
more and more perspective.
So it's this empathetic processthat we get to. So really in a
way, this is kind of the futureof where business is going, is
leaning into more and moreempathy as we evolve as humans.
Carly Ries (11:01):
Well, so let me ask you this. So if people are being
empathetic, sometimes that canbe a big weight on people's
shoulders as well. They mightget overly invested into how
their clients are feeling ortheir contractors and all that.
It can just be a heavy weight.How can people care a lot
without burning out?
I mean, would imagine somepeople would just They care so
(11:22):
much that they play the yes gameand not say no to things, and it
turns into a cycle. How canpeople avoid that?
Stephen Sakach (11:29):
Yeah, I think I know with my experiences with
burnout personally and thingslike that, it really goes back
to trying to find a higherpurpose in what you do. and even
that higher purpose may eventurn into like a life purpose
for you. So you want to be ableto do hard challenging things.
(11:49):
But if you're feeling like it'sa soul sucking process, you
know, that's gonna burn you out.
And a lot of solopreneursprobably have even left the
corporate world because it wasjust sucking their souls. It
felt like they're, you know,opening up a vein every day,
nine to five. And all the dataright now, says that's what's
happening because four out offive workers are disengaged at
(12:11):
work right now. So this is avery unhealthy thing where it's
this lack of caring, really,though, that that happens. It's
not too much caring for eachother.
It's really this lack of caring,I think. So if you really lean
into the empathy of what you'redoing, this often helps you find
that higher purpose and givesyou energy. And so I think real
(12:34):
care is almost actually whathelps you avoid burnout. there's
this example. I think SimonSinek told this story about
there is this luggage handlerwho you go to in an airport and
he's handling all the luggagefor people.
But he's gotta go in duringChristmas, the middle of winter.
And this sounds like it could beleaving his family. And this is
(12:57):
not a fun time to be leavingyour family and having to do all
this. And his son was askinglike, Hey, dad, why do you have
go into work? And he's like,Well, I've got to go there
because there are grandpas andgrandmas trying to get to their
families right now.
And dad has to help them dothat. And it's like that higher
purpose, finding that higher whyof what you're doing. That's
what gives you the energy topush through those things that
(13:18):
could be like these very burningout kind of activities. So I
think that is really the key isprobably not I know as we've got
clients and you do care aboutthem and you worry and sometimes
you know, may even wreck yoursleep. But I do think that that
care is really the lack of it iswhat gives us more burnout.
Carly Ries (13:41):
Yeah. I love that approach. I just feel like you
bring such, human qualities to aworld that I feel like it's
lacking in so many differentareas. On that note, you co
founded AI CMO, which is an AIpowered marketing platform. And
there are so many solopreneursthat kind of use AI or are
(14:01):
curious about using AI, but theyjust don't fully utilize it the
way that they could be.
So what is your advice forgetting started without losing
that feeling of authenticity?
Stephen Sakach (14:12):
Yeah. So, with our platform, as AI chief
marketing officer, it's reallyour most active users are
solopreneurs, I think. So welook at them, they're really in
there. but with our platform,we're doing a few things around
that authenticity issue. So thefirst thing we wanna help you do
(14:33):
is dig into finding that higherpurpose in your business.
We take you through this processand probably something as a
solopreneur, maybe you've nevereven gone through. But it digs
into your values, what'simportant to you, and helps you
articulate that why around whatyou're doing. And so you go
through that process. You'llbasically come up with a
(14:54):
purpose. it doesn't necessarilyhave to be the most eloquently
tight purpose.
But it's a purpose that speaksto the deeper parts of who you
are and what you do. So we'regonna use that kind of as an
anchor to guide where you'regoing with your marketing. We
wanna make sure we're alwaysspeaking around that purpose
because that's going to reallybring out that authenticity in
(15:18):
what you're doing. There areother things in there too. Like,
we're looking to differentiateyou from your competitors or or
we'll scan your whole websiteand look at your brand voice,
whatever you're doing to kindamake it sound like you too.
But ultimately, when you getdown to it for that real
authenticity, it's going throughthis exercise to determine what
(15:41):
is really truly important to youand get to that real
authenticity because that'sreally what's gonna shine
through, I think. And we reallywant AI to kind of prompt you to
be a better human by kind ofdoing this. You know, not we're
thinking always about promptingAI. This is really AI coming at
you to prompt you going throughthese exercises to really kinda
(16:02):
elevate what you're doing.
Carly Ries (16:04):
So how do you use AI to deepen that human connection
with your audience and yourclients?
Stephen Sakach (16:11):
So it goes back to that authenticity aspect. So
when you show up like that inmarketing, that's when you're
gonna build that emotionalconnection. And so those out
there who maybe don't know allthe the deeper parts of,
building emotional connection inmarketing, this tool really does
a good job on doing that. Soit's not just, the marketing
(16:35):
that you're doing, you know, onyour ads and stuff like that and
your blogs, but it's also theconsumption experience of your
product or service.
So there are, people may notrealize this or care, but there
are 17 different emotions whenit comes to consuming your
product or service. And some arenegative and some are positive.
And you definitely, wanna avoidthose negative ones. So one of
(16:56):
the great ways to create thatemotional connection is through
surprise and delight. Right?
So when you're dealing with acustomer. we've got a tool in
there just for that. So this isgoing to come up with all kinds
of ways to kind of surprise anddelight your customers. This
kind of purple goldfish thingelements at your business. And
(17:17):
so this really helps you makethat human connection.
Because it's tying into thesepositive experiential emotions
that people go through whenthey're interacting with
Obviously, we want to be goodpeople, but we don't know
sometimes what we don't know. Sothis is really helping you to do
that. ultimately, with ourplatform, it's not so much
(17:40):
about, again, prompting AI. It'sabout prompting us. Like,
here are some things you can doto build deeper connections in
your business with people whenthey walk in or they're
interacting with you via Zoom.
Comes up with all kinds ofamazing ideas with that. So,
yeah, I love that tool in there.If you're gonna use the tool, we
have free trial and everything.But it really does help to build
(18:03):
that emotional connection.
Carly Ries (18:05):
I love that. Well, so in addition to this, as a
chief marketing officerplatform, what do you think the
top, let's say, three thingsshould be that solopreneurs be
implementing from a marketingstandpoint using AI?
Stephen Sakach (18:21):
I think using AI I'm gonna focus particularly on
the marketing side for sure. oneof the things we do is take you
through this emotional customerjourney. So here's your
customer. Here's what they'regoing through at these different
stages of before they're acustomer, as they become a
(18:43):
customer. This is really anempathetic exercise for you.
And this really has nothing todo with even writing stuff. It's
just getting in their head kindof thing to set up how you're
going to talk with them, howyou're gonna communicate with
them, to really understand them.Again, building that emotional
connection with them. So I thinkusing AI for understanding that
(19:06):
customer journey on a deeper, amuch deeper level than you've
ever even thought about, it'sreally good. It's really good at
that.
I think where a lot of peoplecan go sideways with AI is,
like, if I'm using, say, ChatGPTand I go in there and say I'm
installing blinds or somethinglike that as a business. And I'm
(19:29):
out writing me an article aboutblinds and installing it. Well,
someone a 100 miles away may bedoing the same exact prompt, not
very sophisticated. They'regonna get a very similar result
from the AI. So this is notgoing to be something that
sounds unique or authentic toyou.
And it's probably gonna fallpretty flat when you're
(19:52):
delivering that way. So That'sone of the things we tried to do
is just make sure that we'rebringing all these other
elements like your higherpurpose, differentiating your
brand voice, things like thatinto this conversation before
you even make that query inthere. Because, I think that's a
lot of people's first experiencewith AI. Everyone has to still
(20:15):
be prompt engineers and thinkingreally through the process.
Otherwise, they're gonna getvery similar results out. I'd
say avoid that for sure. Avoidthat sameness. And then really,
I think one of the other goodways that will help you in
business wise is maybe you don'thave a mentor or a coach. Just
(20:38):
tell AI to act like whatever. You can be in ChatGPT and act
like whatever mentor you'd have.And take on that persona and
provide you some feedback aboutsome question about your
business.
It can really do a good job ofkind of elevating you or getting
you to think outside things youjust don't know about. So
there are a lot of ways you canreally use it, as a solopreneur.
(21:01):
I Think that I wish I had, youknow, twenty years ago when I
first started out.
Carly Ries (21:05):
Well, speaking of when you first started out, what
would you say one system is thatyou wish every solopreneur would
put in place today?
Stephen Sakach (21:14):
So, I kind of inherently knew this, and that's
really that whatever you'redoing, do it with love. I just
kind of knew that. And I didn'tknow until one day that my
grandfather came up to me. He's80 years old. And he said the
same exact thing to me.
He was all, Hey, I was juststarting out my solopreneur
(21:37):
career, having some successthere. He's all, Whatever you
do, do it with love. And I waslike, Okay, this is a guy who's
got eighty something years oflife experience. So maybe what
I'm thinking about love inbusiness is really It does have
a strong place for it. But Ididn't know for many years kind
of how to make that play out inbusiness.
(21:58):
And it really is that simplething of just asking yourself
what's the loving thing to dohere. And I think there are ways
we can do that in businessthat'll help us stay true to
that love. And that can betaking more of like a triple
bottom line approach to yourbusiness. Right? So you can
(22:18):
think about profit.
This is what we all think aboutin business. But maybe we can
have metrics toward people orplanet. These other parts of
bottom lines that we can have.This is what we're doing for the
planet. This is what we're doingfor our customers and things
like that.
You can really start to measuresome of those other elements
beyond that that sole profitapproaches, which really where
(22:41):
we kind of focus on a lot. Iwish I had that bliss mindset.
The building love in a scalablesystems. Because what happens is
you start to systemize kindnessin what you're doing. And
instead of it being this randomact of kindness, it becomes
systemized act of kindness andit repeatedly happens.
And that impacts others. Andwhen you can do that with
(23:03):
consistency, there's this rippleeffect in what you do. And so I
think, really, if you just keepasking that question and you
kind of build something so thatit's not this one time thing,
it's gonna make a big differencearound you.
Carly Ries (23:17):
Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, I love that answer. Stephen,
you are so great. I think whatyou're doing in the AI world is
so important and often soforgotten.
And hopefully, you help so manypeople find success with it
through this podcast andobviously with everything that
you're doing. So speaking ofsuccess, we ask all of our
guests this question. What isyour favorite quote about
(23:37):
success?
Stephen Sakach (23:39):
So there is this quote from Marumi about eight
hundred years ago that ittranslates to you are what you
seek. And so I think too often,we define success by money in
the bank. Right? You know,that's what we seek. And we
probably do that because it'ssomething we can measure and
(23:59):
something we can compare toothers and determine, hey, how
well are we doing?
But success can be the livesyou've impacted, the kindness
that you put into the world orthe wisdom that you built. It
can be many other things. So areyou seeking something that's in
service to yourself? Fame,adoration. Or are you seeking
(24:20):
something that's in service toothers?
And I think, when we really tryand think about it, maybe even
on our deathbed at some point intime, it's that love that's
really important to usultimately, that love of others.
So the more we can seek that, Ithink, that's where true success
(24:42):
will lie. So, you are what youseek. And so what are you
seeking is what I'd ask.
Carly Ries (24:48):
So great. Well, Stephen, if people want to learn
more about you, AICMO, where canthey they find all that
information?
Stephen Sakach (24:55):
Well, go to aicmo.io. And if you go to
aicmo.io/start, we have a freeseven day trial and no credit
card is required. But if you doput in a credit card and use
promo code solo 30, s o l o 30,you can get a thirty day free
(25:15):
trial. So you can try it out andexperiment it and you can get a
lot done in those thirty days,trust me. So yeah, go there,
check that out. We'd love tohave you part of our movement.
Carly Ries (25:25):
Awesome. That is so great. Thank you so much. And
all that will be in the shownotes. But thank you for coming
on today. This has beenwonderful.
Stephen Sakach (25:31):
Thanks. It was great. I loved it.
Carly Ries (25:33):
And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. As
always, please share thisepisode with a friend, leave
that five star review, andsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform. And we'll seeyou next time on The Aspiring
Solopreneur. You may be goingsolo 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
(25:55):
they go.
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.Be sure to join in on the
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com
AI can feel cold and robotic, but Stephen Sakach is
(00:02):
here to flip that script. Inthis episode, he shares how
solopreneurs can use AI todeepen human connection and not
lose it. From surviving the WildWest days of Internet marketing
to creating bliss or build loveinto scalable systems, Steven
breaks down how to stayauthentic, avoid burnout, and
build a business rooted inempathy. You're listening to The
(00:23):
Aspiring Solopreneur, thepodcast for anyone on the solo
business journey, whether you'rejust toying with the idea,
taking your first bold step, orhave been running your own show
for years and want to keepgrowing, refining, and thriving.
I'm Carly Ries, and along withmy cohost, Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
(00:43):
of one.
As part of LifeStarr, a digitalhub dedicated to all things
solar ownership, we help peopledesign businesses that align
with their life's ambitions sothey can work to live, not live
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(01:06):
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Steven, I am so happy thatyou're on the show today because
(02:02):
I just signed up for aconference I was telling you
about next week and it feelslike everything is about AI. But
I feel like when people think ofAI, they think robotic or it
sounds like everybody else. Andyou kind of bring that human
connection back to AI, I think,which is a lot like we work with
this guy, George B. Thomas, andhe's like, the center of
everything is humanity andconnecting. So I can't wait to
(02:25):
talk to you about everythingwe're going to dive into today.
But before we do, I have anicebreaker question for you. I'm
so excited because you pickedthe one that we love when guests
pick this because we think thefunniest stories come out of it.
But what is the wildest thingthat has happened to you as a
solopreneur?
Stephen Sakach (02:41):
So my solopreneur career started when
the internet was invented. So wedid not have that when I was in
a kid or when I was in college.So this was really kind of the
birth of digital marketing. Iwould say this is the wild west
days of Internet marketing. So Ihad a regular nine to five job.
(03:02):
I would come home and I wouldsit on my bed with my laptop and
figured out search enginemarketing. And there was this
thing, you know, that all theSEO purists back then were mad
about, and that was paid search.And literally, this was like the
invention of paid search. AndI'm like, oh, so this is the
future. So I hopped on therewith a company called goto.com
(03:24):
we get into.
And I would be in there and Itaught myself how to build these
crude web pages and everything.I'd be in there and selling
stuff. But back then, you couldsee what everybody was bidding
against each other. And so itbecame really personal with
bidding against each other. Butit also became this form of
(03:45):
torture.
Right? Cause you know if youfell out of first place or into
second place, that could costyou thousands of dollars. And so
during the holidays, you were onyour computer. It's pretty much
if you could skip sleep, youwould because you just couldn't
help but be on there because youknow someone's changing that bid
on you. So it was this form ofmadness that we were just locked
(04:07):
into back then.
And we're just bidding, bidding,bidding. Eventually, my goal was
to make money so when we hadkids, you know, we could be able
to afford them. And so I endedup at one point, I'm starting to
make more money than I'm makingat my day job. And, you know,
that bidding thing where if I'mnot there doing that, I'm losing
(04:29):
money going to work. So I waslosing money going to work for
my day job.
And it's like, okay. well,obviously, I've gotta quit that.
At the time, I was working formy mother. It's like, sorry,
mom.
Carly Ries (04:43):
At least she'll love you regardless.
Stephen Sakach (04:45):
I know. At least she'll love me regardless, but
it was like a couple years afterdivorce, and she's taken over
this business. And, we're atleast having record years, and
I'm like, alright. You're ingood hands. I gotta go do this.
But finally, after three or fouryears of doing this, this
madness with these bidding,especially during the holidays,
they finally made the bidsdisappear. And that was, like,
(05:09):
sweet release from this torturethat I didn't know I was putting
myself through for severalyears. And it was like, oh my
gosh. I can't see what everyoneelse is doing anymore. Oh,
suddenly, I just felt, aliveagain.
But it was, these awful earlydays of the Wild West Internet.
it was just madness back then.
Carly Ries (05:30):
You see that because it sounds like you're in the
trenches, so much what you donow revolves around empathy. And
I'm like, do you just haveempathy for people because of
what you went through?
Stephen Sakach (05:39):
Yeah. I mean, I was young, and there was no
empathy for myself. It's justlike, you know, Gen X. We like
to grind, I think, a lot. And soit was like, yeah, this is just
what you you do.
But, yeah, for sure, that jobsatisfaction, that work life
balance stuff, Yeah, I wasfeeling it there. You don't want
(06:01):
to get that burnout.
Carly Ries (06:02):
I'm sure. Well, speaking of empathy, you have
this acronym BLISS, Build LoveInto Scalable Systems. What
inspired you to, if it wasn'tthat, what inspired you to bring
empathy into business in thistangible concrete way?
Stephen Sakach (06:18):
Yeah, so there's this stage in kind of your
entrepreneurial journey whereyou need help at some point if
you're doing well. Start toscale. And these days that
scaling could come from even anAI agent. Right? It could be.
And you could still be that soloentrepreneur there. But when you
scale, you start to systemize.And so what worried me at the
(06:40):
time, we were starting to growas a company. So I went from
that solopreneur to 40 people.And we're going growing pretty
fast at one point.
And so what I was worried aboutwas the loss of culture. Because
before, it could just be me oneon one with the clients. You
know? And I know that thingswere gonna be done kind of the
(07:01):
way we wanted to do with kind ofthat empathetic approach, really
caring about the best interestsof the clients. But I couldn't
oversee everything now.
So it's like, we need a guidingprinciple. And so we came up
with, build love into scalablesystems. How can we build love
into what we're doing? Andreally, this became the north
star of everything we're doing.So no matter what we're doing,
(07:23):
whatever part of our business,it was a check-in. it's like,
well, how can we build love intothis? And I think, you might
find when you're doing this,which certainly we did, was
really how you are really inservice to others. Because this
is this very kind of empatheticprocess, this loving process.
You go through all these stagesof understanding your clients
(07:45):
and your customers and yourfellow employees. So through
that, you might also find yourhigher purpose in that process.
So what we did was justbasically audit our business by
love. It's like, how can webuild love into this? And just
keep asking that question? Andit's like little by little, you
know, a little made a lot, andit started just changing our
culture, even changing theapproach to marketing that we do
(08:06):
to really get into this sort ofempathetic marketing approach to
to what we're doing.
Carly Ries (08:12):
Well, I love this because you're talking about
this with your team, but a lotof the times solopreneurs work
with contractors and a lot ofcontractors who aren't actual
employees, but you still have toput processes together, if not
more so when they're not underyour employee umbrella. So what
can solopreneurs be doing as afirst step to building love into
their systems?
Stephen Sakach (08:33):
Yeah. I think, just by asking that question,
that's a mind shift change forsure. it really is just taking
an empathetic look at maybe howyou onboard clients. What
emotions are they going through?
What are they worried about? Howare you showing up where you can
(08:54):
alleviate that? Or like yourcontractors, are we making sure
we're doing this the way wewanna do it? So we studied
corporate scandals and we kindabroke down their systems where
they ultimately failed. And Ithink there were a couple key
areas in the systems.
And they're both very empatheticparts of a system. You don't
(09:15):
really think of that, but thesewere the key areas. And one was
the feedback loop of a system.So, a system goes through all
these processes and in the end,there's a feedback loop. So in
the scandal companies, it wasalways either ignored or buried
or not paid attention to.
So as a solopreneur, I think youreally need to kinda actively
pursue that feedback from thecustomers you serve. that's
(09:39):
really kind of vital becausethat's gonna keep you in that
empathetic mindset. The otherkey area where things broke down
was around purpose. The purposeof the system or the purpose of
the business. So if it wasn't anempathetic purpose, if my sole
purpose was profit, well, thenyou aren't asking, how does this
(09:59):
part of my business impact theenvironment?
Or how does this impact thewell-being of customers? Am I
selling something that's not intheir best interest? this is
where you really get goingsideways sometimes with your
business is when you're notreally looking at all the
different ways you affectpeople. Like you mentioned, if
you've got partners that you'reworking with or contracting to,
(10:23):
you're affecting them as well.There's a relationship here that
you can look into.
Your clients. You really wannalook at that through their
eyesight. Kind of what they'regoing through as a client of
yours. But the more we canexpand our perspective This is
how we evolve consciously. ifyou're looking at the evolution
(10:43):
of consciousness in humans, it'sreally our ability to take on
more and more perspective.
So it's this empathetic processthat we get to. So really in a
way, this is kind of the futureof where business is going, is
leaning into more and moreempathy as we evolve as humans.
Carly Ries (11:01):
Well, so let me ask you this. So if people are being
empathetic, sometimes that canbe a big weight on people's
shoulders as well. They mightget overly invested into how
their clients are feeling ortheir contractors and all that.
It can just be a heavy weight.How can people care a lot
without burning out?
I mean, would imagine somepeople would just They care so
(11:22):
much that they play the yes gameand not say no to things, and it
turns into a cycle. How canpeople avoid that?
Stephen Sakach (11:29):
Yeah, I think I know with my experiences with
burnout personally and thingslike that, it really goes back
to trying to find a higherpurpose in what you do. and even
that higher purpose may eventurn into like a life purpose
for you. So you want to be ableto do hard challenging things.
(11:49):
But if you're feeling like it'sa soul sucking process, you
know, that's gonna burn you out.
And a lot of solopreneursprobably have even left the
corporate world because it wasjust sucking their souls. It
felt like they're, you know,opening up a vein every day,
nine to five. And all the dataright now, says that's what's
happening because four out offive workers are disengaged at
(12:11):
work right now. So this is avery unhealthy thing where it's
this lack of caring, really,though, that that happens. It's
not too much caring for eachother.
It's really this lack of caring,I think. So if you really lean
into the empathy of what you'redoing, this often helps you find
that higher purpose and givesyou energy. And so I think real
(12:34):
care is almost actually whathelps you avoid burnout. there's
this example. I think SimonSinek told this story about
there is this luggage handlerwho you go to in an airport and
he's handling all the luggagefor people.
But he's gotta go in duringChristmas, the middle of winter.
And this sounds like it could beleaving his family. And this is
(12:57):
not a fun time to be leavingyour family and having to do all
this. And his son was askinglike, Hey, dad, why do you have
go into work? And he's like,Well, I've got to go there
because there are grandpas andgrandmas trying to get to their
families right now.
And dad has to help them dothat. And it's like that higher
purpose, finding that higher whyof what you're doing. That's
what gives you the energy topush through those things that
(13:18):
could be like these very burningout kind of activities. So I
think that is really the key isprobably not I know as we've got
clients and you do care aboutthem and you worry and sometimes
you know, may even wreck yoursleep. But I do think that that
care is really the lack of it iswhat gives us more burnout.
Carly Ries (13:41):
Yeah. I love that approach. I just feel like you
bring such, human qualities to aworld that I feel like it's
lacking in so many differentareas. On that note, you co
founded AI CMO, which is an AIpowered marketing platform. And
there are so many solopreneursthat kind of use AI or are
(14:01):
curious about using AI, but theyjust don't fully utilize it the
way that they could be.
So what is your advice forgetting started without losing
that feeling of authenticity?
Stephen Sakach (14:12):
Yeah. So, with our platform, as AI chief
marketing officer, it's reallyour most active users are
solopreneurs, I think. So welook at them, they're really in
there. but with our platform,we're doing a few things around
that authenticity issue. So thefirst thing we wanna help you do
(14:33):
is dig into finding that higherpurpose in your business.
We take you through this processand probably something as a
solopreneur, maybe you've nevereven gone through. But it digs
into your values, what'simportant to you, and helps you
articulate that why around whatyou're doing. And so you go
through that process. You'llbasically come up with a
(14:54):
purpose. it doesn't necessarilyhave to be the most eloquently
tight purpose.
But it's a purpose that speaksto the deeper parts of who you
are and what you do. So we'regonna use that kind of as an
anchor to guide where you'regoing with your marketing. We
wanna make sure we're alwaysspeaking around that purpose
because that's going to reallybring out that authenticity in
(15:18):
what you're doing. There areother things in there too. Like,
we're looking to differentiateyou from your competitors or or
we'll scan your whole websiteand look at your brand voice,
whatever you're doing to kindamake it sound like you too.
But ultimately, when you getdown to it for that real
authenticity, it's going throughthis exercise to determine what
(15:41):
is really truly important to youand get to that real
authenticity because that'sreally what's gonna shine
through, I think. And we reallywant AI to kind of prompt you to
be a better human by kind ofdoing this. You know, not we're
thinking always about promptingAI. This is really AI coming at
you to prompt you going throughthese exercises to really kinda
(16:02):
elevate what you're doing.
Carly Ries (16:04):
So how do you use AI to deepen that human connection
with your audience and yourclients?
Stephen Sakach (16:11):
So it goes back to that authenticity aspect. So
when you show up like that inmarketing, that's when you're
gonna build that emotionalconnection. And so those out
there who maybe don't know allthe the deeper parts of,
building emotional connection inmarketing, this tool really does
a good job on doing that. Soit's not just, the marketing
(16:35):
that you're doing, you know, onyour ads and stuff like that and
your blogs, but it's also theconsumption experience of your
product or service.
So there are, people may notrealize this or care, but there
are 17 different emotions whenit comes to consuming your
product or service. And some arenegative and some are positive.
And you definitely, wanna avoidthose negative ones. So one of
(16:56):
the great ways to create thatemotional connection is through
surprise and delight. Right?
So when you're dealing with acustomer. we've got a tool in
there just for that. So this isgoing to come up with all kinds
of ways to kind of surprise anddelight your customers. This
kind of purple goldfish thingelements at your business. And
(17:17):
so this really helps you makethat human connection.
Because it's tying into thesepositive experiential emotions
that people go through whenthey're interacting with
Obviously, we want to be goodpeople, but we don't know
sometimes what we don't know. Sothis is really helping you to do
that. ultimately, with ourplatform, it's not so much
(17:40):
about, again, prompting AI. It'sabout prompting us. Like,
here are some things you can doto build deeper connections in
your business with people whenthey walk in or they're
interacting with you via Zoom.
Comes up with all kinds ofamazing ideas with that. So,
yeah, I love that tool in there.If you're gonna use the tool, we
have free trial and everything.But it really does help to build
(18:03):
that emotional connection.
Carly Ries (18:05):
I love that. Well, so in addition to this, as a
chief marketing officerplatform, what do you think the
top, let's say, three thingsshould be that solopreneurs be
implementing from a marketingstandpoint using AI?
Stephen Sakach (18:21):
I think using AI I'm gonna focus particularly on
the marketing side for sure. oneof the things we do is take you
through this emotional customerjourney. So here's your
customer. Here's what they'regoing through at these different
stages of before they're acustomer, as they become a
(18:43):
customer. This is really anempathetic exercise for you.
And this really has nothing todo with even writing stuff. It's
just getting in their head kindof thing to set up how you're
going to talk with them, howyou're gonna communicate with
them, to really understand them.Again, building that emotional
connection with them. So I thinkusing AI for understanding that
(19:06):
customer journey on a deeper, amuch deeper level than you've
ever even thought about, it'sreally good. It's really good at
that.
I think where a lot of peoplecan go sideways with AI is,
like, if I'm using, say, ChatGPTand I go in there and say I'm
installing blinds or somethinglike that as a business. And I'm
(19:29):
out writing me an article aboutblinds and installing it. Well,
someone a 100 miles away may bedoing the same exact prompt, not
very sophisticated. They'regonna get a very similar result
from the AI. So this is notgoing to be something that
sounds unique or authentic toyou.
And it's probably gonna fallpretty flat when you're
(19:52):
delivering that way. So That'sone of the things we tried to do
is just make sure that we'rebringing all these other
elements like your higherpurpose, differentiating your
brand voice, things like thatinto this conversation before
you even make that query inthere. Because, I think that's a
lot of people's first experiencewith AI. Everyone has to still
(20:15):
be prompt engineers and thinkingreally through the process.
Otherwise, they're gonna getvery similar results out. I'd
say avoid that for sure. Avoidthat sameness. And then really,
I think one of the other goodways that will help you in
business wise is maybe you don'thave a mentor or a coach. Just
(20:38):
tell AI to act like whatever. You can be in ChatGPT and act
like whatever mentor you'd have.And take on that persona and
provide you some feedback aboutsome question about your
business.
It can really do a good job ofkind of elevating you or getting
you to think outside things youjust don't know about. So
there are a lot of ways you canreally use it, as a solopreneur.
(21:01):
I Think that I wish I had, youknow, twenty years ago when I
first started out.
Carly Ries (21:05):
Well, speaking of when you first started out, what
would you say one system is thatyou wish every solopreneur would
put in place today?
Stephen Sakach (21:14):
So, I kind of inherently knew this, and that's
really that whatever you'redoing, do it with love. I just
kind of knew that. And I didn'tknow until one day that my
grandfather came up to me. He's80 years old. And he said the
same exact thing to me.
He was all, Hey, I was juststarting out my solopreneur
(21:37):
career, having some successthere. He's all, Whatever you
do, do it with love. And I waslike, Okay, this is a guy who's
got eighty something years oflife experience. So maybe what
I'm thinking about love inbusiness is really It does have
a strong place for it. But Ididn't know for many years kind
of how to make that play out inbusiness.
(21:58):
And it really is that simplething of just asking yourself
what's the loving thing to dohere. And I think there are ways
we can do that in businessthat'll help us stay true to
that love. And that can betaking more of like a triple
bottom line approach to yourbusiness. Right? So you can
(22:18):
think about profit.
This is what we all think aboutin business. But maybe we can
have metrics toward people orplanet. These other parts of
bottom lines that we can have.This is what we're doing for the
planet. This is what we're doingfor our customers and things
like that.
You can really start to measuresome of those other elements
beyond that that sole profitapproaches, which really where
(22:41):
we kind of focus on a lot. Iwish I had that bliss mindset.
The building love in a scalablesystems. Because what happens is
you start to systemize kindnessin what you're doing. And
instead of it being this randomact of kindness, it becomes
systemized act of kindness andit repeatedly happens.
And that impacts others. Andwhen you can do that with
(23:03):
consistency, there's this rippleeffect in what you do. And so I
think, really, if you just keepasking that question and you
kind of build something so thatit's not this one time thing,
it's gonna make a big differencearound you.
Carly Ries (23:17):
Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, I love that answer. Stephen,
you are so great. I think whatyou're doing in the AI world is
so important and often soforgotten.
And hopefully, you help so manypeople find success with it
through this podcast andobviously with everything that
you're doing. So speaking ofsuccess, we ask all of our
guests this question. What isyour favorite quote about
(23:37):
success?
Stephen Sakach (23:39):
So there is this quote from Marumi about eight
hundred years ago that ittranslates to you are what you
seek. And so I think too often,we define success by money in
the bank. Right? You know,that's what we seek. And we
probably do that because it'ssomething we can measure and
(23:59):
something we can compare toothers and determine, hey, how
well are we doing?
But success can be the livesyou've impacted, the kindness
that you put into the world orthe wisdom that you built. It
can be many other things. So areyou seeking something that's in
service to yourself? Fame,adoration. Or are you seeking
(24:20):
something that's in service toothers?
And I think, when we really tryand think about it, maybe even
on our deathbed at some point intime, it's that love that's
really important to usultimately, that love of others.
So the more we can seek that, Ithink, that's where true success
(24:42):
will lie. So, you are what youseek. And so what are you
seeking is what I'd ask.
Carly Ries (24:48):
So great. Well, Stephen, if people want to learn
more about you, AICMO, where canthey they find all that
information?
Stephen Sakach (24:55):
Well, go to aicmo.io. And if you go to
aicmo.io/start, we have a freeseven day trial and no credit
card is required. But if you doput in a credit card and use
promo code solo 30, s o l o 30,you can get a thirty day free
(25:15):
trial. So you can try it out andexperiment it and you can get a
lot done in those thirty days,trust me. So yeah, go there,
check that out. We'd love tohave you part of our movement.
Carly Ries (25:25):
Awesome. That is so great. Thank you so much. And
all that will be in the shownotes. But thank you for coming
on today. This has beenwonderful.
Stephen Sakach (25:31):
Thanks. It was great. I loved it.
Carly Ries (25:33):
And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. As
always, please share thisepisode with a friend, leave
that five star review, andsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform. And we'll seeyou next time on The Aspiring
Solopreneur. You may be goingsolo 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
(25:55):
they go.
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.Be sure to join in on the
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com
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