The EO Visionary Voices Podcast

Brent Peterson (00:03.768)
Welcome to this episode of EO Visions brought to you by Entrepreneurs Organization. I'm with Carly Ries today. She is the founder of LifeStarr a solopreneur coach. Carly, I don't want to jump ahead. think go ahead. Tell us your day to day role and one of your passions.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (00:19.904)
Yeah, yeah, so I wish I was the founder of Lifestar because that way I could take all the credit. But I am actually the fractional CMO of Lifestar, Chief Marketing Officer. I told a doctor friend of mine that I was CMO and she thought I meant Chief Medical Officer and that I was very under qualified, which I would have been. But Lifestar is a company that helps solopreneurs start, run, grow and revise their business. It's basically a place where they can go if you're a solopreneur that wants to build a business that supports your life,

business that runs your life. And so we just realized so many people, especially after COVID, are flying solo. And we want them to know that just because they're flying solo in business, that doesn't mean they're alone. There's a place for you. There's step-by-step guidance for you. So that's kind of what LifeStarr is all about. And I hopped on. a fractional CMO. I am also a solopreneur. most of my attention is dedicated to LifeStarr because I love it so much. But since I'm a solopreneur, I can go do other things if I need to.

Brent Peterson (01:19.916)
That's awesome. How about passions?

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (01:22.248)
Passions, boy.

How long is this episode? So, time with family and friends, maybe the most cliche thing I could say, but that is just where I find all my joy. Hiking, I love yoga, cooking. I've gotten really into Pilates this year and I live in Colorado Springs and so I'm on a mission to train for the Pike's Peak Ascent in 2026, which is a half marathon up America's mountain. So you may be wondering, oh, are you a runner?

I am not, but this is the year that I'm going to become Red.

Brent Peterson (01:57.078)
Yeah, I've heard that race and I heard you can do both ways. I heard you can go up or down on it.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (02:01.856)
So they have the ascent on a Saturday and then they have the marathon, which is up and down on Sunday. I think I'm gonna spare my knees and take the bus down, but that's the plan. We'll see. Well, so here's to qualifying.

Brent Peterson (02:06.325)
Okay, got it.

Brent Peterson (02:15.542)
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I live in Kona the majority of the year and there's a race, they don't do it anymore, but it's called Run Till You're Ralph and you run up about 2,500 feet and run down 2,500 feet. So six miles up, six miles down and I've run it down and it is really, really steep if you know how steep that is. Anyways, we won't get caught up in that.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (02:37.994)
Yeah, I know you keep going. I'm like, tell me your tips. need all of them. It's at Couch to 5K, I'm doing Couch to Half Marathon of the Mountain.

Brent Peterson (02:46.72)
Yeah, awesome. Well, good. Yeah, well, that's great. All right. Well, before we get started, though, I wouldn't I'm going to tell you a joke and all you do is give me a rating eight through 13. So here we go. One of my children's friends was nicknamed Velcro. I didn't really know why, but it stuck.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (03:06.56)
13. 14 if you could go higher.

Brent Peterson (03:12.684)
Yeah, thanks. I struggled on the delivery there. think I lost my voice here. anyways, yeah, all right. So Fractional, that's awesome. just tell us a little bit about how you help soul openers.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (03:19.774)
I thought it was great.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (03:28.64)
Yeah, so we have found that no matter what industry a solopreneur is in, across the board, even services versus product base, solopreneurs struggle with lead gen sales and productivity. Lead gen, they have this great idea, they can't wait to get it out there, and then they really struggle finding clients. And the ironic part about that is a lot of times solopreneurs don't need 50 clients, they need three to five.

charged at the right price to really make a living and get that work-life balance and lifestyle that they want. Sales still has that sleazy connotation, I think, for a lot of people, so we try to spin that and show, if you're helpful, that'll take you a lot further than being a sleazy car salesman. And then productivity, a lot of times, I was guilty of this. It's hard to be accountable to yourself. And when you're working for a boss or a corporation or whatever,

you have deadlines and you need to hold yourself accountable to other people. But when you're setting those deadlines, it's easy to be like, well, actually I could probably push this a day or two. And if it's for client work, maybe you'll stick to it a little bit more, but if it's for your own business, those are so easy to push. So we really try to help solopreneurs with lead gen sales.

and productivity and give them a clear roadmap no matter what phase of the business they're in, whether they're beginners, whether they're running a business but they wanna improve it, or whether they're like, my business isn't going great, let's refine, reimagine. And so we kinda help people with those three things along their journey.

Brent Peterson (05:01.324)
Yeah, and I think the stereotypical entrepreneur is the one that is a little bit ADD or ADHD, that they have a new shiny object every week and they're trying something new and staying on task is really hard and I can totally, I totally see where that offers a lot of value.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (05:11.817)
Thanks

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (05:20.414)
And there's such a difference between being busy and being productive. Because so many one-person businesses, yeah, they're busy, but nothing's moving that needle.

Brent Peterson (05:29.708)
Yeah, that's another great point too, like just checking your emails. It feels so satisfying, but it's such a waste of time, right? And I think there's so many little hacks you can do to help you to get past that. Talk a little bit about the, you know, evolving in that role of being a single owner, single entity running an entire business.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (05:51.136)
The mindset shift, mean? It's tough. actually, so I was in, a marketer and I started in agency life. My entire career leading up to solopreneurship was agency life. And so I saw the ins and outs of all marketing departments, all types of clients. And when I decided to go solo, I was like, I got this. Like, I know exactly what I'm doing. My little 28 year old self knows everything. Which was like about a decade ago.

I left and I realized I didn't do the planning that I needed to. I had the knowledge, but I didn't have the planning. And so I think a big thing for solopreneurs, if you're at a corporate job, you need to do the planning, or not you need to, but we'd recommend doing the planning and the legwork before you leave your job. One, financially, but two, for your mental state. I mean, if you jump ship and you don't have a compass, it can be a really scary, overwhelming feeling and you get into...

Decision fatigue, analysis paralysis. So really put that plan in place. And I'm gonna take a step back. Before you even do that, set your goals. And I know that sounds so like, oh, like put a vision board on the wall or whatever. But really, if you don't have anything that you're working towards, you're never gonna reach it. You know what I mean? And so getting those clear goals, we were talking, you were saying that a toddler may have given you your cold.

And I love playing the toddler game when you're defining your goals with the, want to run my own business, why? Because I want more flexibility in my schedule, why? Because I wanted to make it to my grandkids soccer games, why? Because it's important, and I keep saying why like a toddler would.

until you get to that very concrete, this is why I'm doing things, and then that'll be your north star for all of your decisions. So goal setting, putting that plan in place from operations, marketing, sales, hiring virtual assistants. I think a common misconception that people have is when you fly solo in business, you're alone.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (07:54.686)
And nothing can be further from the truth. We always recommend working with contractors, collaborating with other solopreneurs and businesses, and just making sure you have that community from a mental standpoint, but also from a relationship building, getting the word out about your business and just a business standpoint. So really getting that foundation laid before you actually start running your business. It'll give you such a peace of mind to have a roadmap before you hit the ground running.

Brent Peterson (08:24.687)
Yeah, think, you know, that hiring that VA is such a hard move because it's probably going to cost you a couple hundred bucks a month and which is, you know, a lot of times VAs are in Philippines, they charge $8 an hour or something. They require 20 hours a week, but man, they can get a lot of that work done just like we talked about the...

Clearing out your inbox or finding some kind of restaurant whatever the thing is that that that they're doing for you That's helping you and that's freeing up your time to do something else because you only have 168 hours a or something or whatever that number is That's all you have right? I so I think a lot of entrepreneurs get get caught up in the business busyness of their business instead of working on their business

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (08:49.792)
All right.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (08:59.433)
Yeah.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (09:09.428)
Well, and what I would say to that, because it is scary to be like, well, I'm trying to earn a living. I can't allocate $400 to virtual assistants every month. But what you can do is you can trade with people. I'm a strategist. I'm not a designer. Like, Canva and I were best friends because I don't have any artistic talent. But if I needed like a real design, then I can go to an artist friend or a designer friend of mine and say,

I will do part of your strategy to help you get more clients and brainstorm some strategy for you if you'll do this design work for me. Because not only is it free in the sense you're not exchanging dollars, of course, time is money as well, but it lets you practice your craft, whatever that may be, and you get what you need in return and they get what they need. It's just a win-win across the board and you're not spending actual physical dollars on it.

Brent Peterson (10:01.603)
Yeah, I've been in a number of barter groups and I think one of the things you need to do is just to make sure that everybody understands what the expectations are, what you're going to get, and when you're going to get it because a lot of times people...

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (10:10.752)
Thanks.

Brent Peterson (10:13.347)
do the free thing and then I'll get it done in a week and then pretty soon, know, just like you started off with, you know, I have 500 things to do, what should I do? That free thing might be the last thing you do and then it might be delivered at a subpar, right? So making sure that you see that as you're actually, it is actually value.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (10:27.764)
the name.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (10:32.736)
yeah, we live through our statements of work. So it's so clear exactly what you're getting and there's no room for to misinterpret anything that's being given to either party.

Brent Peterson (10:44.269)
Yeah, you kind of lead both roles, right? Because if you're a CMO, you're usually fractionalized in a larger company. So but you're a small business owner as well. So talk about that balance between stepping in and out of the corporate world.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (10:59.8)
So it's interesting because LifeStarr, we're made up of a team of solopreneurs basically, who kind of all came together and were like there has to be a place for people to go. But we also really try to practice what we preach. So the reason I left the corporate world is because I was, I mean my story is not unique. I was working a million hours a day. And my husband and I, my, yeah my husband, he was my boyfriend at the time, my now husband.

we were traveling around the country in an RV. And I was working remotely, he was working remotely. And you would think, oh my gosh, what a great way to work full time but also explore. I did not leave that RV. We were in Yosemite and I saw the walls of my RV. We were in San Francisco, across the country, you name it.

and I saw the walls of my RV. And of course I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it wasn't, I was a slave to my job. And even though I was in my 20s, and that's arguably when you should be a slave to your job, I just was like, there has to be a better way to do this. And so that's when I decided to go off on my own. And what we say to solopreneurs is that's your chance to really.

Design the lifestyle and the the work style that you want. I I'm a mom I love being there for drop-off and pickup being able to attend any school events, whatever but I also like to do these meetings and I like to help solopreneurs and so it's like finding that balance and it's Really taking what you know from the corporate world and applying it to a lifestyle that you want So now I actually get up at every morning. I'm an early bird. I always have been my brain does not work after 4 p.m

But I'm like, okay, I'll get up at 430. I'll go for a hike around nine. I kind of just plan the days around how I would have envisioned it as my younger self.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (12:57.988)
And just plan, it's so interesting because we all think, well even if we're working alone, we still have to work nine to five. And that's not true. Work when your brain works. Take a break when it doesn't work. Prioritize family time or your values. Get out and see your buddies. So I would say take those corporate nuggets and see how you can implement it into a life that you've kind of wanted to plan for yourself all along and now you actually can as a solopreneur.

Brent Peterson (13:23.927)
Yeah, I think that there is a trap there too as an entrepreneur because so many entrepreneurs get caught up into the 120 hour work week and some of the bigger names out there say you have to be working all these hours to make it work for you, right? And I think that there's a trap in that that if you're not doing that balance part of your life that you also get caught up in the busyness part of being an entrepreneur.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (13:46.6)
And I think, yeah, and I think that that's why the goal setting is so important. Because if your goal is to make high six figures, then you do want to prioritize your business stuff over a lot of other things and make sure that you hit that goal. If your goal is to pay your bills and have a little bit more for savings so that you can make it to your meetup groups or whatever you enjoy doing that's like not part of your work, then you maybe don't have to work as much or make as much.

Because your goal in life isn't to be a gazillionaire, it's to spend quality time with friends and family. So that's why we always say go back to your goals because that'll also help you frame how many clients you need, how much you need to make every month, how much you want for savings, and kind of go from there.

Brent Peterson (14:32.431)
Yeah, I think also as an opener you have a cap on your on how many clients you can have right so you at some point you have to decide okay if I want to get past this I'm gonna have to start hiring people and that's just brings a whole new complexity into the whole equation

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (14:47.272)
And Brett, I'm so glad you said that because a lot of times people say, yeah, my time is capped. And so how do I make a living? People, time and time again, undervalue and underprice their services. I mean, I would say 90 % of the solider I talk to, I'm like, your rate. Like, just double your rate. They think they have to reinvent the wheel and it's like, you're doing everything just right, you're just not charging enough.

And I think that's huge. And sometimes I was talking to another gal on a podcast and she was like, yeah, I just kind of threw spaghetti at a wall and like tripled what I thought I was actually valued. And people paid that. And so just, I mean, take a risk and see if people pay for your service because chances are that is what you're worth.

Brent Peterson (15:34.35)
Yeah, I can share my experience that I took a job as a, took a fractional CTO role a couple years ago and the owner said, no, no, I'm paying you this. Like I said this, and he said, no, you need to make this. Because that's, you you're undervaluing your, he knew me, he knew that I was gonna come in too low anyways. But I think that's such a typical thing that you undervalue your services and you think that, that,

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (15:53.706)
Bye.

Brent Peterson (15:59.428)
that you need to really experiment with charging more, especially as you get busier.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (16:04.789)
provided you do give that value. I mean, if you're charging high prices and then are constantly under delivering, then you're not worth that. But if you always come in, like always meet your promises, come in before the deadlines, all of that, then for sure, charge those higher price points.

Brent Peterson (16:26.057)
Carly, we're going through time like crazy here. This has been really fun. What is it that you, what is the main thing you want to, you want to tell a solopreneur when you first talk to them?

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (16:38.724)
The biggest thing, so since I'm the marketing gal, the biggest, well I guess above all else, flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. So please, please, please find that community, collaborators, all that. But from a marketing standpoint, think about what you need for your business and don't just implement marketing tactics that you think you should be implementing. For solopreneurs, I always say do relationship.

driven marketing first, whether that's commenting on people's, instead of posting just a post on social media, actually engage with people on social media and really make those connections. Network, solopreneurship is all about relationship building. And so many times I see solopreneurs creating content, blasting it out there.

or focusing on their SEO or AEO, which is now the AI Engine Optimization. And those are great, but those are also long-term plays. And you're also going up against the big dogs, like with SEO and AEO. Which, again, you can certainly do that as a background, but focus on those relationship-building tactics. Get those few clients and always be working on your lead generation, because you never know when those clients are gonna leave, and make those relationships a priority.

Brent Peterson (17:51.363)
Yeah, last point I'll make too is like fractionalize your day as well. Like making sure you're doing a little bit of sales every day and send and doing some of those things that you need to be doing. Cause it's so easy to get caught up in the day to day and then forget that, geez, I have to answer all my emails and I should get my marketing email sent and I should do this. obviously, scheduling it and making sure it's done in advance is so important, but making that time to do those different tasks that you need to do during the day is important.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (17:58.4)
Thank

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (18:21.152)
Yeah, I recommend putting it on your calendar like it's a meeting that you can't cancel because you will push off the stuff as it relates to your business and not your clients. It's just human nature. I don't know what it is with our brains, but if it's for our own business, it's easier to push down the list and you just can't let that happen.

Brent Peterson (18:39.785)
Carly we have a few minutes left as I close out the podcast to give everybody a chance to do a shameless blog about anything They'd like which like to plug today

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (18:47.104)
Yes, so actually the founder of LifeStarr and I, Joe Rando, we just wrote solopreneur business for dummies and you can now find it anywhere you purchase your books. It's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, you name it. It is exactly what I was talking about, that roadmap for solopreneurs, taking them through what we call the solopreneur success cycle and it gives them kind of just a guide to get them from beginner to running a successful business.

Brent Peterson (19:14.595)
That's great and how would people get in touch with you?

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (19:17.212)
You can find me, I'm Carly at LifeStarr, that's LifeStarr with two R's dot com, that's my email. Otherwise, I'm on LinkedIn, just Carly Ries, R-I-E-S.

Brent Peterson (19:26.275)
That's awesome. Thank you. Carly Ries is the CMO at LifeStarr. Thank you so much for being here today.

Carly Ries, LifeStarr (19:32.042)
Thanks for having me, Brent.