Why ‘Those Who Can’t Do Teach’ is BS

Rising above the “holy war of craft” into focusing on business impact.How to raise the level of a craft conversation (and what can happen when you do).Growing your business once you decide to take your expertise on an upward spiral.Why there is room for soloists to be a top craftsperson OR a top advisor (and how those business models differ).LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter

Do You Need To Escape Your Business?

Soloist Women

More info on the Soloist Women Mastermind

Time Management For Soloists

How we think about using your time—so you can not only be productive, but genuinely enjoy your work.Blocking and tackling your calendar to align with your priorities.How to create to-do lists that incent you to act vs. pushing items around “for later”.Alternative ways to handle your email so that it supports how you do your best work.Addressing your “maybe someday” list to decide which ideas will make the cut to your business.LINKSRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedInTwitter

The Hidden Cost Of Delegation

Why you want to weigh how you want to work and your overall vision before making delegation decisions.Considering whether you’re buying a “box” that someone else has assembled or are designing your own unique process.The sneaky ways delegating small tasks can eat up your time and/or change how you work (aka when delegating has a waterfall effect on your other processes).How to recognize delegation creep: when outsiders add complexity you just don’t need for where you want to take your business. LINKSJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedInTwitterRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

The 100-Day Sprint

The magic email to send when you want to get a go/no go on a proposal that’s gone dark (and why triggering FOMO can be exactly the right move).Sending cold outreach that avoids the stench of desperation (and a sample template you can personalize).Why you want to lead with the pointiest point of your spear when you’re pitching.How to intrigue with your ask (hint: a compelling call to action), while still being exquisitely clear on WIIFM for your target.LINKShttps://www.winwithoutpitching.com/magic-email/https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/prospecting-by-email/https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/telephone-intro/Rochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedInTwitter

Creativity Can Get Messy

Why you want to start with a sales page when designing for clients and buyers.What to do with “sparks”—those tiny bits of an idea that light you up.How to think about putting together your idea (aka does your buyer want the pineapple?)Overcoming avoidance (fear), imposter syndrome (fear), and worrying your audience won’t like you/your idea (fear).How to choose the right people to share your fledgling ideas with.LINKSJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedInTwitterRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Why Your Pitches Aren’t Landing

How to get clear on what your “target” wants most—and why it matters.Why you want to answer your reader’s WIIFM (what’s in it for me) question right up front.How to “punch above your weight” to connect with household-name-type people.The value of being genuine and coming from a helpful place.Crafting your pitch so that the reader can make a quick Yes/No call.LINKS:The Introduction GameRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | Twitter

Perspective Meets Mindset

Why perspectives are easier to change than our mindset (and how to get help when you need it).The one question to ask yourself if you think your mindset is getting in your way.Six specific mindsets (and how to recognize them) that can prevent soloists from breaking through to high-end revenue combined with the free time to enjoy it.Crossing the line from being tentative to charging premium prices because you are confident in your transformations and your business.The links between your mindset and your confidence in making bets inside your business.RESOURCESJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Building A Business Around Your Genius

Talking PointsThe four zones of work and how to continue morphing toward your personal genius zone.How to think about (and master) the upward spiral that is consistently spending more work time in your genius zone.The clues that tell you it’s time to exit the trap of doing work where you’re merely competent or excellent.Embracing the counterintuitive idea that you can do less—and do fewer things—to move ahead faster.Understanding those things that are a drag on your energy vs. a source of fuel.RESOURCESRochelle | Email List | Soloist Women | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramJonathan | Daily List | Website  | Ditcherville | LinkedIn | TwitterQuotables“One of the ways that we sabotage ourselves is we stay in our zone of competence or excellence. We actively push away opportunities to be in our genius zone. It's almost like, who am I to have it this good?”—RM “(The upward spiral) is aspirational. It's not perfectionist. It's like this iterative process, which to me is so much more real than this like magic bullet.”—JS“You do nobody any favors by staying in your zone of excellence or your zone of competence.”—RM“(Your genius) is way bigger than like a business model or something like that. It's almost like a trait, like a superpower or something.”—JS“Your genius zone is about how you contribute to the world by bringing it your best talents.”—RM “The process of honing down…to the extent that I would call it my genius zone, is really just like looking at the stuff that drains me and not doing it anymore.”—JS“Every day that you're alive, you could get a little bit more into your genius zone.”—RM“That feels weird: it's like, wait, do less, do fewer things to get ahead. It's counterintuitive.”—JS

Why Wouldn’t You Hire Help?

How it feels when clients have several choices, but don’t trust any of them to bring them reliably to their finish line.The perceived experience and control clients feel from a DIY solution (that they don’t completely trust they’ll get from you).How to make it easier for certain clients to either hire you or drop out earlier in the process.What goes through clients’ heads as they consider spending money for your services/outcomes.Quotables“Once you make that decision and you pick the horse, you're riding that horse to the end.”—JS“Just because you decided to do it yourself doesn't mean that you know what's behind the walls.”—RM“There's no real way for a non-expert to judge the capabilities of an expert.”—JS“You consciously chose this because it was a better perceived experience for you than the level of unknown with hiring somebody to do it.”—RM“All of the decision-making processes that kept us paralyzed turned out in retrospect to have been unfounded.”—JS“Sometimes when you (bring in additional team members), it allows you to make a different promise to your client and make it easier for them to hire you.”—RM

The Mid-Year Assessment

Riding The AI Wave

The power and potential of AI for authority businesses, even in use cases where pundits insist it will decimate business models.Some of the new tools (that you can use right now) that innovators are developing for experts, authorities and soloists.Why using AI for first drafts may be the immediate best use of AI for experts and authorities.New uses of AI in the authority space: automated transcription, voice replication and first-draft content generation from tweets and hashtags to turning podcasts into book drafts. The potential of AI to leverage your soloist business, including taking tasks you used to pay for or do yourself off your plate entirely.Quotables“It's like this thing you can see on the horizon. And it's like, are you going to paddle out and ride it or just stay on the beach, nice and comfy?”—JS“I don't have to be a tech bro to figure this out…this is achingly simple.”—RM “The power of that (AI) for someone who is trying to lead a revolution or spread a big idea or lead a mission—especially a soloist—it's jaw-dropping.”—JS“It's dangerous to be resistant to new ideas. Doesn't mean you're going to embrace them ever, but just being flat out resistant usually is not a great long-term strategy for your business.”—RM“Let's say that it takes half of your time to do first drafts, and you could increase your productivity by like, say, double. And you could take on twice as many clients working the same amount of time as you currently work.”—JS“This is about getting a first draft. As a writer…your client doesn't care where it came from. What they care about is that it works for their brand or their campaign, or whatever they're hiring you to do.”—RM “It's kind of like I have a first drafter, like an intern type of employee who understands my stuff and can do a good first pass.”—JS“If I can get clients to something that is going to cut the amount of time they spend and increase their profits, hello! I want that at the top of my list for my practice.”—RMLinkshttps://hello.podium.page/blog/convert-your-podcast-to-a-book-with-podbook-by-podiumhttps://thebusinessofauthority.simplecast.com/episodes/seth-godinhttps://www.podcastshownotes.ai/https://www.getmunch.com/https://www.chatcsv.co/https://www.stfo.io/ffbihttps://www.descript.com/https://www.midjourney.com/https://beta.elevenlabs.io/

Knowing When To Quit

How to think about sunk costs—and the cultural and emotional messages around abandoning your “thing”.Evaluating opportunity costs—how to know when it’s time to quit to free up resources for other things.The value of asking for outside input before making large investments—and how to get it.Why setting kill criteria right at the start of your new investments (and not well into the project) may be your best move.The cultural and emotional aspects of quitting that no one talks about, but pretty much everyone experiences.Quotables“It’s always easier to see when you think someone else should quit something. It's like, you've been trying to become an actor for 40 years and you've had one walk on part. I think it might be time to quit.”—JS“I'm thinking of something that I dropped and, duh, it didn't work because I didn't do any freaking research to make sure anybody even wanted this thing.”—RM “If you've only got a few chips on the table, it's no big deal. It's just like, eh, this is an experiment, didn't work out. And if you keep doing those, eventually one is gonna be not crickets. One is gonna be take my money.”—JS“The right people will say yes to a call or some kind of an interaction. And if they won't, then it doesn't matter how good your idea is—then you need to spend some time getting these people to want to take your calls...”—RM“If you think quitting is for losers, maybe reframe that in your mind in terms of knowing when to quit.”—JS“Fear is what keeps people in terrible jobs, in terrible relationships, in businesses that don't fit them, in roles that really are bad for them. It's that fear of…but what do I do next?”—RM “The type of goal that you have can make it easier or harder to know what the kill criteria is or are.”—JS“So much is possible, if we allow ourselves not to stick with everything that we start.”—RM

Deciding To Be The Best In The World

What if you decided to be the absolute best in the world at what you do—how would it change your day-to-day decisions and moves?Jonathan and I argue that that decision is critical to being able to weather what Seth Godin calls “the dip”:Why navigating the dip (the desert you have to cross to get to Mecca) is so much easier when you have decided to be the best in the world.What does “best in the world” mean for you—and what are you willing to commit to to achieve it?How that decision translates to revenue and picking the right next moves—even (especially) when they’re hard.Choosing where to place your bets when faced with turning point decisions.Why the “glorious quest” nature of some missions allows you to tap into energy you didn’t even know you had to get through obstacles.Quotables“It is sort of a call to arms to be more than mediocre.”—JS“The dip is kind of like the desert that you have to cross to get to Mecca. And on the other side are all the riches you get from doing the hard, dirty, nasty work of the dip.”—RM“If you're spending all of your time doing this thing, you need to have a way to put Cheerios in the bowl.”—JS“You're willing to do it because it's worth it. It's worth it in terms of your emotional connection to the outcome. It's worth it in terms of the transformations you deliver to your ideal people. It's worth it in terms of the business you can build for yourself and the revenue that you can make.”—RM“It's like every decision you make is a bet. There's no guarantee, right? So it's a bet.”—JS“It's not like you only have one chance in your life to do this one big thing. You have multiple, multiple chances.”—RM“It's just going to come back to…focusing down on demand that is so specific that you can reasonably decide to be the best in the world at this very specific thing and then use the excitement of that to carry you through whatever dips you encounter (which you will).”—JS“You're not like the Renaissance person who knows a lot about a few things and a little bit about a lot. You're someone with deep knowledge—and that makes you really valuable.”—RMLINKSThe Dip by Seth Godin