Ever find yourself paying for a coaching program, joining a business community, or signing up for a course... only to sit there struggling with something you could probably get help with if you just ASKED? 😂

Or maybe you're the solopreneur who has gotten so used to figuring everything out yourself that asking for support feels like admitting you don't know what you're doing.

We get it. Because we've been there, too.

This week on Solopreneur CEO, we're bringing back a conversation from our Honest Convos with Carin and Marcia archives that feels just as relevant today as it did when we first recorded it.

We're talking about what real business support looks like, why so many experienced solopreneurs struggle to ask for help, and how trying to do everything alone can quietly hold your business back.

Here's the thing: Being capable of doing something yourself doesn't mean you should have to do everything yourself.

Sometimes we don't ask questions because we're afraid we'll look inexperienced. Sometimes we don't want to bother our coach or admit we haven't completed the modules. And sometimes we've convinced ourselves that if we were really good at running a business, we'd already have all the answers.

Meanwhile, we're paying for memberships, courses, and coaching programs we're barely using. 😩

But this conversation isn't just about getting support. It's also about GIVING it.

As coaches, consultants, and service providers, we have a responsibility to make sure our clients can actually use what we're delivering. That might mean going beyond a step-by-step plan to demonstrate implementation, checking in when clients disappear, or creating an experience where people feel comfortable asking questions.

Because real support isn't just providing access to information. It's helping people make meaningful progress.

We also explore the difference between transactional networking and genuine business relationships, the importance of surrounding yourself with people who understand your goals, and why you shouldn't wait until you're completely overwhelmed to build a support system.

You don't have to be struggling to benefit from community. You can be doing incredibly well and still need people who challenge you, celebrate your wins, share their experiences, and remind you of the bigger vision when you lose sight of it.

And sometimes, you're the person who gets to provide that support for someone else.

The bottom line? You can be a successful, capable business owner and still need other people.

In fact, having the right support might be exactly what helps you reach your next level without burning yourself out along the way.

🎧 Tune in for an honest conversation about asking for help, getting the most from your business investments, creating better client experiences, and finding the kind of community that makes entrepreneurship feel a whole lot less lonely.

WANT TO FIND YOUR PEOPLE?

Join our FREE Solopreneur CEO community, where we're bringing together experienced solopreneurs who want to grow their businesses without doing everything alone.

Come connect with us at thesolopreneurceo.com.

This episode originally aired on Honest Convos with Carin and Marcia in summer 2025. We're bringing it back because the conversation is too important to leave in the archives!

It’s business planning season! Time to pull out the planners, review the numbers, set those revenue goals, and start dreaming about everything we’re going to accomplish next year.

But before you decide you’re going to double your revenue, triple your client roster, and launch three new offers…

Can we talk about whether you actually WANT all of that? 🤔

Because there’s a difference between planning for the business you have, planning for the business you want, and planning for the business somebody on the internet convinced you SHOULD want.

In this episode of Solopreneur CEO, Carin and Marcia are talking about strategic business planning, setting realistic growth goals, and why your revenue targets are only one piece of a much bigger picture.

It’s easy to look at the numbers and decide you want eight coaching clients every month. But what happens when you get to four and realize you’re already stretched thin? What happens when you double your revenue but don’t have the systems, time, or energy to deliver the experience your clients deserve?

Sometimes the answer isn’t to push harder or think bigger. Sometimes it’s to rethink what growth should actually look like for YOU.

And that means taking a more holistic approach to business planning.

As solopreneurs, our businesses don’t exist separately from our lives. Our health, relationships, family responsibilities, personal priorities, and the seasons we’re moving through all influence what we’re realistically able to accomplish. When we create business plans without accounting for those things, we set ourselves up for frustration, guilt, and that familiar cycle of moving the same unfinished goals from one month to the next.

We’re also talking about the pressure to scale. Just because someone tells you that you could serve 30 clients a month doesn’t mean that’s the business you want. Maybe three to five clients is your sweet spot. Maybe your current revenue goal is enough to support the lifestyle you want. Maybe growing bigger would actually move you further away from the freedom you started your business to create.

Do you really need to think bigger? Or do you need to get clearer about what enough looks like for you?

Of course, having a vision matters. We believe in setting goals that stretch you. But those goals also need to be supported by your business model, your capacity, and the systems required to make them happen.

That’s why we’re digging into what effective quarterly business planning actually looks like. It’s not just writing down an exciting revenue number and hoping everything works out. It’s reviewing your offers, client delivery, marketing, lead nurturing, conversion process, and the actual steps required to achieve your goals.

If you want to double your revenue, what needs to change about how your business operates? If you want more clients, can your current systems support them? And if your goals require more time and energy than you have available, what needs to shift before you pursue them?

We also share how we’re approaching our own planning retreat, why planning alongside other business owners can be so valuable, and how to turn aspirational goals into practical action plans.

Because the goal isn’t to create the most impressive-looking business plan.

It’s to create a plan you believe in, have the capacity to execute, and actually WANT to live with once it succeeds.

🎯 Ready to plan your next quarter with us?

Our Q1 2027 Strategy Planning Workshop is happening December 11!

The workshop is included for Success Secret Society members, and we’re opening registration to solopreneurs outside the membership who want support creating an intentional, actionable plan for the new year.

Join our FREE Solopreneur CEO community at thesolopreneurceo.com to access the calendar and register.

Let’s build a business that works for your actual life, not just one that looks good on paper.

It’s October, and apparently we’re supposed to be done with 2026 already.

Everywhere you look, people are talking about 2027 goals, 2027 business planning, new offers, new strategies, and everything we’re going to do “next year.” Meanwhile, we’re over here wondering: Can we finish THIS year first? 😂 Because the fourth quarter isn’t just a waiting room for January.

In this episode of Solopreneur CEO, Carin and Marcia are talking about Q4 business planning, year-end goals, and why solopreneurs shouldn’t mentally write off the last few months of the year just because everyone else has moved on to planning for the next one.

Three months is enough time to make meaningful changes in your business. Even if you’re listening with only 60 or 75 days left in the year, you can still finish the website, improve your client onboarding, fix a bottleneck, build a system, make an offer, reconnect with your audience, or finally implement something that has been sitting on your business goals list for months.

That doesn’t mean ignoring your business data or refusing to plan for 2027. In fact, Q4 is a great time to review what happened during the first nine months of the year. Which offers worked? Which didn’t? What happened with your revenue goals? Which marketing channels are still producing results? What did you say you wanted to accomplish back in January, and does it even still matter?

The difference is using that information to make better decisions now, instead of automatically deciding that every change, project, or new goal has to wait until January.

We also talk about Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing and whether discounting your services is actually an effective Q4 sales strategy. We discuss the difference between throwing another generic discount onto the internet and strategically creating an offer for the people already in your ecosystem.

Most importantly, we’re talking about how to close out the year in a way that actually supports the business and life you want to build. You can start planning for 2027 while still giving your 2026 goals enough space to mature. You can decide what still deserves your attention, what you can realistically complete before December 31, and what you’re intentionally choosing to release.

You don’t need to hustle your way through the end of the year or manufacture some dramatic “finish strong” moment. But you also don’t need to give away the time you still have.

Use Q4 intentionally. Finish what matters. Release what doesn’t. And give your future self a much better starting point for the year ahead.

🎙️ Episode 32: Stop Acting Like the Year Is Already Over

Want more support building a sustainable business that grows without consuming your life? Join the free Solopreneur CEO community to connect with other experienced solopreneurs, continue the conversations from the podcast, and get support as you build a business that works for your life.

Join us at thesolopreneurceo.com

One offer. One platform. One audience. One goal. One thing at a time. That can be really good advice when you’re starting a business. But what happens when your business is actually… a business?

You have clients to serve. Marketing to do. Maybe you’re writing a book, preparing for a speaking engagement, developing a new offer, managing contractors, planning an event, or working on whatever the next stage of growth looks like for you. At some point, “just focus on one thing” stops being particularly helpful.

In this episode of Solopreneur CEO, Carin and Marcia are talking about the difference between divided focus and intentional focus. The goal isn’t to somehow eliminate everything else happening in your business. It’s learning how to decide what deserves your attention right now, give that thing your full attention, and then intentionally move to the next thing.

Because once your business is established, having multiple irons in the fire isn’t necessarily a sign that you’re scattered or doing something wrong. It might actually be a sign that your business is growing. The challenge is learning how to manage those competing priorities without carrying all of them in your head at the exact same time.

We talk about using quarterly planning, time blocking, data, intuition, and good old-fashioned discernment to decide what needs your attention now. We also get into what happens when you CAN’T make the decision and find yourself ruminating, making another pros-and-cons list, changing the plan again, or getting stuck because you’re too close to the business to see clearly.

That’s also why outside perspective matters. Sometimes you need other smart humans who can hear what you’re weighing, reflect back what they see, connect dots you’ve missed, and help you make the decision so you can stay in motion. And that conversation leads us to a little update inside the Success Secret Society: our Hot Seat Coaching sessions are becoming Boardroom Briefings, which much more accurately reflects the advisory and strategic decision-making support happening in those rooms.

And because no Solopreneur CEO conversation stays neatly inside its original topic 😂, we also get into the emotional side of running a business. Entrepreneurship can take you from “I am AMAZING at this” to “I should burn the whole thing down” and back again before lunch. When you’re the person personally driving nearly every part of the business, business growth and personal growth become pretty difficult to separate.

But here’s the bigger reminder: You’re not doing it wrong just because you have a lot going on. You also don’t have to keep growing simply because entrepreneurship culture tells you that you should. You get to decide what success looks like, how much you want to grow, what deserves your attention, and how you want to run the business you built.

The goal isn’t to have only one thing happening. The goal is to know which thing needs you right now.

There is ALWAYS something you could be doing in your business. Emails to write. Funnels to tweak. Systems to build. Graphics to create. Automations to set up. A website page that suddenly feels VERY important to redesign.

And when you’re a solopreneur doing all the things, it’s easy to think: I just need to be more productive.

Maybe not. Maybe you don’t need to figure out how to cram MORE into your day. Maybe you need to figure out which 20% of what you’re doing is actually creating results… and ask yourself:

What the hell am I doing with the other 80%?

In this episode of Solopreneur CEO, Carin and Marcia are talking about the 80/20 principle and what it looks like when you apply it to the reality of running a business by yourself.

Because not all work deserves the same amount of your time.

And sometimes the work that makes you FEEL the most productive is actually the work keeping you comfortably hidden in the backend of your business.

We’re talking about:

• Identifying the 20% of your work that actually creates results
• Why your highest-value work probably involves PEOPLE
• The difference between useful systems work and backend busy work
• How “getting ready” can become a sneaky form of procrastination
• Why relationship building, follow-up, marketing, and conversations need protected time
• Creating systems that continue paying dividends after the initial work is done
• Why solopreneurs get trapped doing work that feels easier to check off
• Staying visible and marketing even when your client roster is full
• How batching and automation can make selling feel easier
• Building a business that doesn’t require you to babysit every process

Because there’s nothing wrong with working on the backend of your business. Build the welcome sequence. Create the follow-up system. Set up the automation. Document the process.

But make sure that work is eventually freeing you to spend MORE time on the work only you can do, not creating an endless supply of new busy work.

If you’ve been ending your days exhausted with a checked-off to-do list but wondering why the business still isn’t moving the way you want it to, this conversation is for you.

There are a lot of people online right now who are SALTY about coaching.

They invested $5K, $10K, $20K or more in a coach or program, didn’t get the results they expected, and walked away wondering:

What exactly did I pay for?

And honestly? Part of the problem might be that we’ve started calling almost EVERYTHING coaching.

Coaching. Consulting. Mentoring. Programs. Frameworks. Blueprints.

They’ve all gotten mixed together under one giant “coaching” umbrella, even though they’re not the same thing.

In this episode of Solopreneur CEO, Carin and Marcia unpack what coaching actually is, how it differs from consulting and mentoring, and why understanding the difference matters whether you’re BUYING support or SELLING it.

Because sometimes you need someone to ask the right questions, reflect your thinking back to you, and help you uncover what’s getting in your way.

And sometimes? You don’t need another question. 😂 You need somebody to tell you what the heck to DO.

We’re talking about:

• What actual coaching looks like
• The difference between coaching, consulting, and mentoring• Why marketing has blurred those lines
• How service providers can be clearer about what they’re actually selling
• Why screening clients matters just as much as attracting them
• How to decide whether a coach or program is actually right for you
• Why testimonials aren’t the only thing you should consider
• The responsibility you have when you invest in support
• Why nobody will ever care more about your results than YOU do
• And why selling someone a strategy doesn’t mean they’ll get the result if they never implement it

Because there are absolutely situations where the provider did not deliver what was promised.

But there are also plenty of programs collecting virtual dust while the buyer wonders why nothing changed.

Hiring support doesn’t outsource your responsibility for the result.

Whether you’re the person making the investment or the person selling the service, this conversation is about getting much clearer on what’s being promised, what’s being delivered, and what each person is responsible for bringing to the relationship.

Because if we’re going to spend thousands of dollars getting help building our businesses…

We should probably know what the heck we’re actually buying.

We hear it all the time in business:

You need to get in the room.

Go to the networking event. Join the community. Attend the conference. Meet more people. Make more connections.

And yes, getting out of your business bubble matters.

But what if you’re getting into the wrong rooms?

Or what if you’re finally in the right room… but you’re sitting in the audience when you should be on the stage?

In this episode of Solopreneur CEO, Carin and Marcia are talking about what they’ve learned from a summer of getting OUTSIDE, attending events, networking, joining communities, making connections, and figuring out which opportunities are actually worth their time and energy.

Because when you’re a solopreneur, every yes costs you something.

That event takes time away from something else. That new community needs your attention. That networking opportunity might mean less energy for your clients, your business, your family, or yourself.

And saying yes to everything because you’re afraid you might miss an opportunity isn’t a strategy.

We’re talking about how to evaluate the rooms you’re entering, recognizing when you’ve outgrown being an attendee, trusting yourself enough to decline opportunities that don’t fit, and getting clear about what you actually want from the spaces you choose to enter.

Plus, we get into the rooms that don’t require you to leave your house at all: online communities.

Because whether the room is physical or virtual, the question is the same:

Why are you here?

Are you there to learn?
Build relationships?
Find clients?
Get support?
Be visible?
Teach?
Lead?

You don’t need to be in every room.

You need to be intentional about the rooms that deserve your limited time, attention, and energy… and make sure you’re showing up in the right position once you get there.

YouTube is having a moment.

Everyone wants evergreen content.

Instagram is showing up in Google search.

Blogs are apparently still alive and well. 😂

And depending on who you follow, there’s probably another platform or marketing strategy you’re being told you absolutely NEED to be using right now.

But here’s the thing:

Everything still works.

In this episode of Solopreneur CEO, Carin and Marcia are talking about the marketing trends we’re seeing right now, including the shift toward searchable, long-lasting content and why more business owners are reconsidering where they invest their time, money, and energy.

But this conversation quickly turns into something bigger.

Because you don’t have to be on Instagram. You don’t have to start a YouTube channel. You don’t have to chase the newest marketing strategy just because everyone else seems to be doing it.

You need to figure out what works for your business, your goals, and the way you actually want to work.

We’re talking about evergreen content, search-based platforms, human connection, production quality vs. message quality, word-of-mouth marketing, and why sometimes the smartest thing you can do is stop overcomplicating everything and EXECUTE.

Plus, as we head toward Q4, we’re challenging you to take a look at your digital footprint.

If someone discovered your business today, where would your digital breadcrumbs lead them?

An outdated offer?
A broken link?
A challenge that ended three months ago? 😬
Or a clear next step toward working with you?

Because choosing the right marketing strategy matters.

But so does making sure the path you’ve already created is actually leading people somewhere.

Let business be simpler. Pay attention to what works. And put your energy there.