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The Solopreneur Shift: Why AI is Killing the Traditional Business Model
8 Plays29 days ago
In this episode, Dan Sanchez and Ken Freire dive into the meaning of "solopreneurship" and explore its evolving definition in the era of AI. They reflect on their own journeys from intrapreneurs to solopreneurs, sharing personal stories, the challenges of scaling solo, and how AI is reshaping what a one-person business can accomplish. This launch episode lays the foundation for the podcast's mission: helping solo founders scale smarter, faster, and with more freedom.
Resources Mentioned
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss - https://tim.blog/4-hour-workweek-tools/
- The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber - https://www.michaelegerbercompanies.com/books/
- ChatGPT - https://openai.com/
- Full Focus (Michael Hyatt's company) - https://fullfocus.co/
- Carrd (Landing Page Builder) - https://carrd.co/
Timestamps
- 00:00 — What is a solopreneur, really?
- 02:30 — Solopreneurs vs Entrepreneurs: The key differences
- 04:30 — Solopreneurship as a lifestyle design choice
- 06:30 — Influence of The 4-Hour Workweek
- 08:00 — From intrapreneur to solopreneur
- 11:30 — The dark side: loneliness, overwhelm, and limited skills
- 13:00 — The E-Myth framework: technician vs manager vs entrepreneur
- 15:00 — How AI is changing what can be automated
- 20:00 — The path to the first solo billionaire
- 24:00 — Making scaling fun again: staying in your genius zone
- 30:00 — You may be solo, but you don't have to go it alone
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Solopreneurship
00:00:01
Danchez
So solopreneurship, that is the topic of this episode. And I thought we would just kick it off with that word, even talking about what that word means.
00:00:13
Danchez
And this is going to be a bit of a different episode. More different than any podcast I've ever opened up or that I've ever hosted before, because this is going to be about a story about myself, Dan Sanchez, and my good friend and now business partner, Ken Freire.
00:00:32
Ken Freire
Hey hey, what's up guys?
Defining Solopreneurs vs Entrepreneurs
00:00:33
Danchez
talking about a journey that we're on around this topic of solopreneurship. And I wanted to kick it off, Ken, with even asking, what does that even mean?
00:00:45
Danchez
Like, but how do you actually define it? Because I'm not even sure we're on the same page as far as to what a solopreneur is.
00:00:52
Ken Freire
Yeah, you know, a lot of people know the term entrepreneur, right? Because that's the new shiny object. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, but they don't realize that like there's different types of entrepreneurs.
00:01:03
Ken Freire
And that's where the solopreneur comes in, where it's the individual who wants to build something, but just by himself. But then that begs the question, is it always by themselves? Do they have a team at some point? Do they have contract workers?
00:01:15
Ken Freire
Like, what do they have? And that's why you and i like, even as we're texting, were even talking about this yesterday, I think, right? We're like, what would a solopreneur have a staff at some point? And at what point does a solopreneur become an entrepreneur?
00:01:28
Ken Freire
Is it overlapping?
Solopreneur Goals and Lifestyle
00:01:29
Ken Freire
So that's why we decided to have this conversation today of like, what is a solopreneur?
00:01:34
Danchez
Solopreneur. When I think of a solopreneur, it's definitely somebody, it's not that theyre they're devoid of staff, but they're kind of like the main person. Like if they cease to exist, the business ceases to exist.
00:01:42
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:45
Danchez
It doesn't exist without them. But it's something more than just a freelancer, I feel like. Like a freeance freelancer can go to solopreneur, but I feel like a solopreneur is trying to build.
00:01:58
Danchez
it's It's somewhere between like building a model that can exist without you and just clocking hours.
00:02:04
Ken Freire
yeah
00:02:04
Danchez
Like it's actually trying to build something more substantial, right? And that's kind of like where my head's at.
00:02:09
Ken Freire
yeah you know Yeah, and i like I like to compare a solopreneur with an entrepreneur. like An entrepreneur might have a small staff, full-time, W-2 type staff, where it might be a group three at least three staff, right?
00:02:22
Ken Freire
Where they're trying to build something, grow something, and the model for an entrepreneur is predicated on a product or a service that requires that much staff. But a solopreneur's model, it may be an online information business.
00:02:35
Ken Freire
It may be a coaching practice. It may be something where it doesn't require that many staff. It might require a contract like a part-time CFO or someone to a bookkeeper, but it doesn't require that much of labor.
00:02:52
Danchez
almost feel like a solopreneur has a little bit more of that entrepreneurial spirit, not just like a freelancer, not just like a consultant, but they have that burn in them to build something that's different, world-class even, but just operated by one person.
00:03:08
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:08
Danchez
Like you're trying to bring something, you're trying to burst something into the world that hasn't been done before, potentially. maybe it's just a different angle at doing ah yeah ah a different business.
00:03:18
Danchez
I feel like most creators are actually solopreneurs in a lot of ways, right?
00:03:21
Ken Freire
yeah
00:03:22
Danchez
Because they have to bring some kind of angle to succeed on YouTube or Instagram or whatever it might be and monetize it in a way. So like, I feel like all creators are almost automatically solopreneurs because they are inventing something that wasn't before.
00:03:33
Ken Freire
yeah
00:03:36
Ken Freire
And I would totally agree. ah you know And i think a lot of it about it a lot of it is all about the motivation behind the solopreneur, right? Where a solopreneur is building a lifestyle type business, where an entrepreneur, they they say they want to, but it also requires so much work. you know I used to joke
Influential Figures and Concepts
00:03:52
Ken Freire
around when I used to be at a job where there was a bunch of business owners where it was like, hey, you left your nine to five job only to start something that's 24 seven.
00:04:03
Ken Freire
And that's what most entrepreneurs, they're always on the clock. They're always thinking. They're always processing it where a solopreneur is like, no, no, this is a lifestyle business. How does this business fuel the life that I want?
00:04:14
Ken Freire
So I'm going to put the proper boundaries. I don't have anybody that I have to report to or people reporting to them, right? Because there's that pressure that when you have people reporting to you, you got to come up with the work. You got to check their work. you gotta You're always on.
00:04:28
Ken Freire
And they're like, i don't want to manage people. i just want to have a business that can scale. And it's just predicated within the lifestyle that I want.
00:04:37
Danchez
Where'd you first come become exposed to the word solopreneur, at least maybe not even the word, but the idea of being a solopreneur.
00:04:45
Ken Freire
Oh man, I would probably say easily like 10 years ago when I started to see people like ah Tim Ferriss, right? Where he was just kind of like building his own thing in the four hour work week, that kind of idea. And I'm like, whoa, didn't even know that was possible. Right.
00:04:58
Ken Freire
And then people like Michael Hyatt, when he first started his blog and his his business, all all those things, I started to think, is this even possible? Like where people are just kind of doing their own thing and One, making a massive impact and two, also making a lot of income.
00:05:14
Ken Freire
Like i didn't even know that was, but I always envisioned an entrepreneur is like building a product, like a physical product, right? Like clothing or or supplements or whatever it may be. And they're going out and doing it.
00:05:25
Ken Freire
But just to have something where all of a sudden they're doing impact and income was very shocking to me.
00:05:31
Danchez
Yeah, same. I was going to say my answer would have been just the four hour work week from Tim Ferriss.
00:05:36
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:05:37
Danchez
I think it was a lot of people's first initial impression of solopreneurship, right? Because it was a huge like dividing line between like, yeah, usually to get rich, you'd build a company and you'd have to build a big and scale and hire people.
00:05:50
Danchez
And Tim Ferriss painted a really good picture of not doing it that way, of working only four hours a week. And I don't think that's necessarily the the goal of all solopreneurs, to only work four hours or even just 10 hours a week.
00:06:03
Danchez
But I think there's something mixed into that. I think that book was so successful and such a transformative book for a lot of people and setting the stage for what a solopreneur is that I think that's almost like part of why people become solopreneurs.
00:06:17
Danchez
is not
Applying Solopreneur Principles
00:06:17
Danchez
just to build something big and meaningful, but to do so in such a way that after grinding for a little bit, not ignoring that fact, you can actually slow down and cut your time to 40 or 30, maybe even 20 hours a week to be able to do other things.
00:06:35
Ken Freire
Yeah, I mean, I worked with a a coaching program that predominantly the business owners would come in and they're working 60 plus hours a week. And one of the things that we would help them do is first get to 40 hours a week, then 30, and then if they wanted to, to 20.
00:06:49
Ken Freire
And it was such a massive game changer for them to start thinking that way. Because then they started to realize they're like, i they have made this business so convoluted and complex.
00:07:00
Ken Freire
They're like, well, I could simplify this and have so much more time back and at the same time have almost the same amount of profit. And like when that dawned on them, they're like, oh, my gosh, I've been doing this backwards the whole time.
00:07:14
Ken Freire
And it was shocking to them and also revealing.
00:07:18
Danchez
Remember the four hour work week was a big deal for me because I didn't want to be an entrepreneur. I didn't even want to, I didn't want to be a solopreneur. And I took that book and applied the principle to essentially become like a intrapreneur, right?
00:07:29
Danchez
Someone who was kind of like entrepreneurial, but within a company.
00:07:30
Ken Freire
Yep.
00:07:32
Danchez
And I was like working for nonprofits at the time. So I saw this as a good noble thing. And it was. but I'm like, what if I could take my 40 hours a week and automate the, like the crap out of all my work to get it down to where the things that we're doing at 40 hours, I'm now doing it five hours because it's automated or delegated.
00:07:48
Danchez
And now I have 35 more hours I could put to work for the nonprofit I'm working for and advance things forward. And I remember like my first reps, I guess, as an entrepreneur is actually just kind of having the entrepreneurial mindset, but within a company, I think you were the same kind of hit you the kind of the same way at first, right?
00:08:02
Ken Freire
Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I even created my own podcast called The Entrepreneur Podcast because I was trying to figure that out. and And I realized that I was getting thrust into more and more higher levels of leadership and I needed to figure out how to accomplish all the goals.
00:08:19
Ken Freire
And one way was the exact same reasoning. I'm like, if I could do this job that right now takes me 20 hours and break it to five hours, man, I could add more to my plate. right And I just had to think completely differently to a point where I became a dean at a university. I've become i've been a COO. I've done a done bunch of different things.
00:08:37
Ken Freire
Why? Because I've learned how to cut a whole bunch of wasteful productivity out of my life and just be extremely efficient and effective. and it But that four-hour workweek, that concept, all of it started to come and spawn because of this idea of like, what would it look like if we were solopreneurs? And now we're both in that journey of looking at it and saying, well, we've done this before in nonprofit spaces and other places too.
00:09:04
Ken Freire
would it look like if we were out on our own to do this? And like get to this four-hour workweek or 20-hour workweek model and say, how do we help others in that journey as well?
00:09:15
Danchez
And that's kind of what is attractive about it, right? Because usually people start becoming solopreneurs.
00:09:18
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:09:21
Danchez
One, out of they're forced into it because they're let go or whatever. And they're like, well, I can either start looking for a new job or start my own thing. And one of those options is solopreneurship. and, or you just get invited into it. Like you, you, you've been doing it long enough for somebody else. or You're like, I think I want to build some systems and scale something for myself.
00:09:42
Ken Freire
yeah
00:09:42
Danchez
I think I want to take the systems and the, the IP that I create and the content, the email sequences and the customer servants service training that I put into someone else and actually build those systems for
00:09:56
Danchez
did I kind of get to keep not keep, but like, you
00:09:58
Ken Freire
Oh, yeah.
Challenges of Solopreneurship
00:09:59
Danchez
know, kind of like put your work for your own business.
00:10:02
Danchez
I think eventually we start getting attracted to being able to be an actual owner because we've been acting like owners inside a company. And now we're like, yeah, but actually and maybe I kind of want to be an owner.
00:10:14
Ken Freire
Yeah. Well, you know, what's fascinating is how many times, Dan, has this happened to you?
00:10:15
Danchez
Right.
00:10:18
Ken Freire
I know it's happened to me multiple times where we've been somewhere, we've worked somewhere, we've put our blood, sweat and tears into this project. And it was a beautiful project.
00:10:28
Ken Freire
And then as soon as we leave, some new person comes in and just dismantles the whole project or whatever thing you did, the IP.
00:10:35
Danchez
Every time, Ken. Every time.
00:10:37
Ken Freire
Every time. It's so frustrating. And you're like, man, this thing is so smooth. Like you built something so beautiful. And I'm and i'm but talking from experience, knowing something Dan built for for a company we both worked at.
00:10:49
Ken Freire
And it's like, man, we could have taken that and we could have distributed it to so many other companies that could have flourished with it. and And that's how a lot of times solopreneurs rise to the occasion, right? Because they're wait minute, I've built something in one place that I'm pretty sure could be replicatable in other places if I put the time and effort to it.
00:11:09
Danchez
there's a lot of advantages to being a solopreneur, right? Obviously, like there's financial upside because you get to, if you can build your own systems and you knew how to do it before in a company and you go out on your own, sure, there's always something to learn, things you don't know about other parts of the business maybe that you haven't been exposed to.
00:11:26
Danchez
there's some risk and it's hard to get up and running. But once you have it up and running, you get to keep it and it gets to earn money for you. But what are some of the downsides you see often with the people you've coached running their own businesses?
00:11:37
Ken Freire
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that most solopreneurs that I know or coaches, the they do have some extroversion type personalities. So then they're trying to do this extroverted type thing, and but they're by themselves. They have no team. They have no one to collaborate with. And it becomes so difficult for them because they're like, I just need to help process some stuff with.
00:12:00
Ken Freire
So like, for example, i worked at Michael Hyatt's company, Full Focus. I was the director of certification there and I oversaw all their coaches. And I can't tell you how many times coaches would just reach out to me they're like hey, can you just help me process this for like 10, 15 minutes?
00:12:13
Ken Freire
And I'm like, sure. you know And within five minutes, I helped them solve the problem. And they're like, oh my gosh, I've been stuck here for days just thinking about this one problem. So that's one thing. The second one, too, is that for a lot of them, they're actually good at one aspect of the business.
00:12:28
Ken Freire
For coaches, they might be really good at coaching. But what they don't realize is that they might not be good at the marketing part, the sales part or the operations part. Right. Or the actual leading of of contractors. There's so many other things that come into play that they don't realize. And they're oh, my gosh, now I'm scrambling to try to figure out how to do all these things. And it becomes so difficult and so overwhelming so fast that they almost get paralyzed by it and end up not doing the things that they really want to do.
00:12:58
Danchez
To me, it's kind of the exciting part. There is a book, and this comes out of the 4-Hour Workweek. It's kind of like the number one recommended book out of the 4-Hour Workweek is the book called The E-Myth.
00:13:07
Ken Freire
Oh yeah.
00:13:08
Danchez
Right. And you have like, you have the technician, you have the manager and you have the entrepreneur.
00:13:09
Ken Freire
love that book.
00:13:12
Danchez
When you, you don't realize when you become a business owner, you have to be all three. Um, you start off usually as the technician, you're good at the thing, but you don't know how to build the systems like the entrepreneur or manage said systems like the manager.
00:13:25
Danchez
And it's a struggle to maintain the balance of all three until you realize that you need to manage all three. you saying most coaches and consultants are just stuck in technician mode most of the time?
00:13:34
Ken Freire
Oh yeah, 100%. they're They're stuck in that area and and most of them don't know where to even begin when it comes to marketing and sales. And this is anyone who's in the coaching consultant realm.
00:13:48
Ken Freire
Most of them are not marketing coaches or consultants. They are lifestyle coaches, productivity coaches, business coaches. And you would think business
AI's Impact on Solopreneurship
00:13:57
Ken Freire
coaches know marketing or sales.
00:13:59
Ken Freire
I'll use myself as an example. I've led marketing teams. i' I know a lot of the theory about marketing and what to do. But then you I need to start go to actually do marketing, right? Like how to set up websites or how to do things.
00:14:13
Ken Freire
it It gets overwhelming really fast. I mean, I kid you guys not. The text thread between Dan and I, 90% is me asking Dan how to go do something. He's like, go ask ChatGPT first now. ah the but it But it happens, right? like It's just like trying to like actually execute on certain things becomes a little bit more difficult.
00:14:33
Danchez
funny you bring up chat gpt because i feel like that's become a big change that's changing the game imagine if tim ferris had ai back when he wrote the four-hour work week
00:14:47
Ken Freire
Oh my gosh, dude.
00:14:48
Danchez
how that might change that book. A lot of people ask him to rewrite the book and he's actually been republishing on his podcast. He's like, instead of chain what sort of me publishing what I would change about the four hour work week, he's been doing the reverse and being like, here's what I wouldn't change.
00:15:04
Danchez
And he's publishing the principles or the chapters that are good, which is a great part of me still wonders what he would change though.
00:15:04
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:15:10
Ken Freire
Oh yeah.
00:15:10
Danchez
And I think that's kind of what I'm curious about because now with ai it's changing the game for solopreneurs completely, right?
00:15:19
Ken Freire
Oh yeah, I mean the things that it took me hours to do, now I can do in minutes. like For example, I was talking to a friend of mine, one of the clients I'm helping i'm i'm helping him build out his his coaching program.
00:15:32
Ken Freire
And you know i started using ChatGPT and I realized i could build a custom ChatGPT for every individual who's stuck trying to figure out how to build their programs, especially because I oversaw accreditation at a university at some point.
00:15:46
Danchez
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:46
Ken Freire
I know how to think very programmatically.
00:15:46
Danchez
yeah yeah
00:15:48
Ken Freire
It's it's something I really enjoy doing. And I was like, oh my gosh, when I was at the university overseeing accreditation, this took me months to try to get everybody in the university on board with.
00:16:02
Ken Freire
to try to solidify here are the objectives for this program. Literally months because everybody had to check it off. And I was like, oh my gosh, if I had ChachiBT four or five years ago, could it would have taken me a week.
00:16:14
Ken Freire
I was like, it changes the game completely. Like so much time to save a whole bunch of people who are trying to figure out how to write their their courses, how to write the the curriculum, all that stuff. I was like, oh my gosh, it's such a game changer.
00:16:27
Ken Freire
And I think solopreneurs can finally start to see a little bit light at the end of the tunnel when they feel so overwhelmed by that feeling of like, I have so much to do and I don't know where to get started.
00:16:38
Danchez
In the the book, The 4-Hour Workweek, he talks a lot about like his process for essentially getting down to four hours a week. And it starts with first eliminate things that are unnecessary, then automate what's left.
00:16:49
Ken Freire
Yep. Yep. Yeah.
00:16:53
Danchez
And for what can't be eliminated, what can't be automated, you then take to delegate. You maybe hire some. He was big into like remote assistance. right Hire someone from the Philippines that can take a step-by-step instructions or a decision tree diamond to like work through things.
00:17:02
Ken Freire
yeah
00:17:08
Danchez
Whatever is left over from that is the stuff only you can do. The thing that's funny about it, though, is with AI, a lot more can move from stuff only you can do
00:17:12
Ken Freire
yeah
00:17:20
Danchez
to automate. And a lot of stuff that you had to delegate before it can now go to automate, which is ah ah big difference. Because before, like if I wanted to have a phone number for someone to call in and ask some questions and book a meeting, well, you know, I would have had to hire someone to do that.
00:17:36
Danchez
There's no way a chat bot would have been able to do that five years ago. And all the chat bots that swore they'd do it like drift five years ago were just complete crap and were horrible experiences.
00:17:41
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:17:45
Danchez
But now, Voice agents can take those calls. Sound good. If you don't even have to pretend like they're not AI, let it say that it's AI, but it'll handle questions. Even maybe even customize the answers to their situation and book meetings or send them documents or do whatever they need to do in order. They can take a few actions now. Imagine years from now, they'll be really good.
00:18:07
Danchez
That's going to change the game. I think you and I both ran into the situation where, you know, because we were working together and you were sales and I was marketing, I generate too many leads and sales can't follow up with them all. Still bitter about that.
00:18:17
Ken Freire
Yeah. I'm,
00:18:21
Danchez
Why can't you answer the phone at 2 a.m., Ken?
00:18:22
Ken Freire
i'
00:18:24
Ken Freire
Oh, I'm like, because I think the person would get mad at me. No, but, but that's, I mean, if you think about it, there are so many people who are getting leads that they're burning through, through leads there. I mean, there's a statistic that I'm i'm trying to remember the exact statistic, like but I think it goes by like 48% or something like that.
00:18:42
Ken Freire
The increase that someone would close if you actually call them within the first 60 seconds that they request information. Right. And I remember thinking that and being like, oh my gosh, that would be awesome if we could manage to do that.
00:18:56
Ken Freire
And we couldn't, it was just so like, we tried, it was so hard. We sometimes we were like in five minutes. Right. Uh, but now with AI, you could pull that off with no problem at all. And it's.
00:19:06
Danchez
at least you can have people calling inbound. you know You offer a call to action on an email. and by call for call and My a but AI bot's really good. It will answer your questions and book a meeting.
00:19:16
Ken Freire
Yep.
00:19:17
Danchez
If you don't believe me, try it. yeah like You can push them a little bit to do it because it's still so new. But it's just opening up options that weren't available. Things that you would have had to have had at least you know a staff of three, four, five,
00:19:29
Danchez
You don't need to be three, four, five. And I'm not saying
Future of Solopreneurship with AI
00:19:31
Danchez
like you don't ever hire people because people are, there's a lot of things that only people will ever be able to do. And I will never be able to do, but it's making it possible to actually scale. Like we've like solopreneurs, I've never been able to scale before.
00:19:45
Ken Freire
Yeah, I mean, i and you know, as we're talking, some people may never want to ever use AI in the current state that it is for sales, right? Like the inbound calls and inbound.
00:19:55
Ken Freire
And we get that they're like, no, that's that's too much, right? But we want to open up your eyes to show you that you can use AI and automate so many other parts of your process.
00:20:06
Ken Freire
If you're a solopreneur, especially as a coach, that like you can find ways to figure out like, hey, marketing copy. Right. You might not be great at it, but now I can at least get make it a little bit better for you or if not a whole lot better.
00:20:18
Ken Freire
ah You don't need to go hire that out. Right. Or so like sales copy or a sales script. Like there's so many things that it could do and automate. It could automate a lot of your your social media content there. It's just a plethora of things. Anything that you are doing repeatable. ai can probably start to take over for you and save you a ton of time.
00:20:38
Danchez
at least do some of it, there's an idea floating out the market and the AI space specifically that AI is so good and it's getting better all the time that within the next five, maybe 10 years, I think it'll be more like five, that we will see our first solo billionaire.
00:20:39
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:20:59
Ken Freire
Hmm.
00:20:59
Danchez
That means a one-person company, maybe with some contractors, maybe they have a bookkeeper. I'm not saying they don't have any staff, but it's essentially one-person company that scales to a billion dollars in annual revenue.
00:21:12
Ken Freire
That's with a B as a boy.
00:21:13
Danchez
A B, yeah. That is absurd.
00:21:15
Ken Freire
That's crazy.
00:21:16
Danchez
It is crazy. Right now, I could think of a few companies that are doing like 15 million as a solo. And they're like, they're the most efficient companies. Like they're generally like code-based, like card, that simple website builder with the two R's in the card.co, I think is one of those companies where they, I think he said at least 15 million just selling basic landing pages, but because it's a really simple product, you know, and he's got enough people paying them $15 a year that you really just didn't need a lot.
00:21:26
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:21:45
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:21:46
Danchez
So, but there will be somebody that hits a billion and they'll probably be a freak of nature.
00:21:47
Ken Freire
But even
00:21:51
Danchez
They'll probably be Elon Musk level, crazy, smart person.
00:21:53
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm just trying to think about that. Like, man, for some people, if they would hit a million, that'd be like, they're on top of the world. 10 million, they feel like a rock star.
00:22:06
Ken Freire
A hundred million is like, dude, what are you doing? A billion is like, it's actually hard for me to fathom that. today. But five, 10 years from now, the way ai is going, everything like that, like we were just talking about sales, right?
00:22:21
Ken Freire
Imagine if your sales was completely automated by ai Right now, I know some people are gonna be creeped out by that, but it's gonna get there at some point. It's gonna be better than me at closing, right?
00:22:33
Ken Freire
Like it's gonna happen. And like when it does, it's gonna change the landscape of so many things. But imagine having AI that doesn't get tired of doing sales calls, that can always close.
00:22:44
Ken Freire
You can get to a billion. Like I could imagine that. And that's gonna be wild.
00:22:51
Danchez
And while that'll be very exciting and we'll be ah hopefully will'll be it'll be an ethical business and we'll be applauding them and maybe they're freaks.
00:22:58
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:22:58
Danchez
Maybe there's a reason why they're solo because they're horrible with people. I don't know.
00:23:02
Ken Freire
Hmm.
00:23:02
Danchez
I don't know. maybe like Maybe they're scared of people. But what's really exciting about that to me is that if one or a few people even...
00:23:12
Danchez
make it to a billion dollars as a but solopreneur, I'm like, oh, you know what that means? It makes it a lot easier to make it to 100 million. makes it a heck of a lot easier to make it to 10 million.
00:23:25
Danchez
It makes it on easy pilot to get to 1 million.
00:23:29
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:23:30
Danchez
You're like with ai now that you can delegate so much of the operations, provided you have the right target and the right offer, like you should be able to scale beyond 100K, which is where a lot of coaches and consultants are at, you know, around that six figure mark and get to seven figures. Yeah.
00:23:46
Danchez
Because they can free up the time to actually work on the business and not get stuck getting doing all the other business asks. They can do the parts that only they're good at, which is honestly the most exciting thing about what it means to be a solopreneur right now.
00:24:00
Ken Freire
Yeah. and And that's the stuff that, you know, as you and I have been talking for a while now that we're like, imagine all these coaches and consultants out there and and even counselors that like we we put all of them in the bucket of solopreneur, right? Or imagine if those people can almost have a simple framework or a simple process where it's like they're hitting that million dollar marker.
00:24:24
Ken Freire
no longer six figure where they're grinding and they're struggling through all the like nights and weekends, having to do the administrative stuff, having to, because all of a sudden they forgot about this little task that needs to get done the next day.
00:24:38
Ken Freire
It's like, man, that stuff could be on autopilot. They could be present with their families. but They can be present at the the hobbies that they're in. They can go do more hobbies. They could go impact their communities and societies for those who are faith-based like like you and I are. right like We could be involved in our churches more. There's so much opportunity there.
00:24:58
Ken Freire
but This is just a means to an end. And that's what I get really excited about, like how many people we can influence and help by getting them to start thinking differently by using utilizing and implementing AI-driven systems.
00:25:13
Danchez
And to me, it almost becomes way more fun because I'm definitely the kind of person that likes to work on the business, not in the business.
00:25:15
Ken Freire
Yeah. Oh yeah.
00:25:18
Ken Freire
yeah
00:25:19
Danchez
And if you're a solopreneur, that's practically impossible, right? Because every time you land new deals, who gets to implement it? You. Who gets to onboard it? You. Who gets to like off-board clients? You. like Everything's dependent on you. But like with AI, what?
00:25:33
Danchez
Yeah, you're you're still going to be in there, but like not nearly as much anymore. It depends on the business model. Some of them require a lot less of you. Some of them require a ton of you, right? But we're dealing with coaches and consultants. But imagine if you don't have to do all the other stuff where all the business admin are related to it and you just have to show up to the call and add the value. And even all the stuff you do on the back end is like sped up with things like ChatGPT in order to provide the value you provide.
00:25:58
Danchez
All a sudden, we're talking about like a totally different world. Yeah. where you could just do the part that you actually love doing. Like me thinking about working on a business is a lot more fun.
00:26:05
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:26:09
Danchez
even just doing what we're doing right now, like showing up and creating a podcast episode. I'm like, this is my favorite part. I would do this even if I didn't like, wasn't trying to do it for money. I like making podcasts. I do it for free.
00:26:20
Ken Freire
Oh yeah. All the time.
00:26:20
Danchez
If I could just do this, this would be, this would be my thing. Just talking shop, teaching people things. And, but I think a lot of coaches and consultants are the same way. Like they have the things they like to do.
00:26:31
Danchez
And, uh, if we can scale while also being solo, that's kind of the dream.
00:26:39
Ken Freire
Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, one of the the things, the messy things about scaling is that it requires more grinding sometimes. And that grinding with, if you're not careful, could lead to too much hustling to then burn out.
00:26:55
Ken Freire
And that beautiful dream that you have of trying to hit that, you know, we're going back to the Tim Ferriss, that four hour work week, but like, even if it was a 30 hour work week, right? Or 20 hour work week, whatever that number is, whatever your dreams are, your aspirations are, many people miss it because they're scaling the wrong way.
00:27:13
Ken Freire
And that's where I think what we're getting excited is like, if we could bring people into their sweet spots, their desire zones, where they are like in their working genius, all of a sudden people are gonna be thriving more.
00:27:25
Ken Freire
That's what I get excited for. Like, oh man, they're like they're hitting it. Like you and I, we could get on podcasts. I could get on be teaching people, coaching people. Man, you get me in a coaching conversation, um i feel alive all day, right? like i'm I'm like happy, I'm giddy, I'm excited.
00:27:39
Ken Freire
But if I have to go
Exploring Solopreneurship and Community
00:27:40
Ken Freire
in and be in the weeds of like checking 500 emails, I'm like, oh my gosh. shoot me, right? Like, I'm done. I'm tired. i don't want to do that, right? Like, I put my work into that. And I know a lot of coaches that feel the same way. They're like, man, I've done all those things. I don't want to do those things. I just want to help people.
00:27:57
Ken Freire
And that's what, ah ah Dan, I think you and I are really excited about helping these ah ah individuals, because now we can get them to a place where if they build the right systems, they build the right foundations, they're going to be really excited about being able to just focus on the things that they love.
00:28:14
Danchez
And I think that's kind of the journey and the point of this whole podcast. is taking this idea of solopreneur and figuring out like what the next leg of this journey looks like.
00:28:26
Danchez
What does a solopreneur look like 10 years from now? And how do we start building that? How do we start building the processes? If we were, if if like if Tim Ferriss were born in our generation and now trying to figure this out, actually it'd probably he started early.
00:28:40
Danchez
So he'd have to be Gen Z. Like if Tim Ferriss were taken out of the swing at this, what would the playbook look like for that?
00:28:42
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:45
Danchez
Because I think that book would look quite a bit different with AI in it.
00:28:45
Ken Freire
yeah
00:28:49
Danchez
Same principles, but the approach would be different.
00:28:53
Ken Freire
yeah
00:28:53
Danchez
we want to figure out what that is. And I think we know a lot of it already because we've experienced some of it. I'm obviously really aid driven. even got the little AI sign up in my podcast studio. But there's going to be a lot of change as technology improves in the future.
00:29:07
Danchez
And I'm excited to build the systems and not just build them for ourselves, but talk about how other people can use them too.
00:29:15
Ken Freire
Yeah, for sure. And, and i you know, one thing that I think this podcast can be super helpful for and and then, you know, I've been talking but a lot about this is that as we are walking through this journey of figuring out what works and what doesn't.
00:29:30
Ken Freire
It's for a lot of solopreneurs, right? They're alone. They are doing this by themselves. They're trying to figure it out. And they're hearing so much noise about, you should do this. You should do that. You should do X, Y, Z. And it's like, that you don't even know where to start.
00:29:44
Ken Freire
It's like, we love playing around with that stuff. We don't mind doing those things. We're going to test those things out for them and be like, hey, this actually works. This doesn't. Or from our experience, we can tell them right away, like, don't try that. It's not going to work.
00:29:55
Ken Freire
You know, I've worked with now for the last several years, I've worked with like over 500 coaches and I just quickly sometimes they they come up with an idea or marketing idea. And I'm like, please don't do that. You're going to waste your money. Like you're not at that place now.
00:30:07
Ken Freire
And when I told them that they're like, oh, my gosh, thank you. I just needed so much someone to like help me think through this. And we bring that experience. The reason I say all that is because you may be a solopreneur, but what we want you to feel is that you're not alone.
00:30:22
Ken Freire
So you may be solo, but you're not alone. And that's what this podcast is going to help you think about is not to be alone in this journey of solopreneurship and actually have other people guiding you, walking with you and empowering you to keep your vision alive.
00:30:35
Ken Freire
so that you can do the things that you want to do and get the impact and the income and the freedom that you want in life. That's the goal. That's the premise. that's That's ultimately what we want to help people with.
00:30:46
Danchez
kind of counterintuitive. You're going it alone, but really you can't.
00:30:51
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:52
Danchez
You might be the sole owner of your business, but you shouldn't be doing the journey alone.
00:30:52
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:30:57
Danchez
And that's kind of the counterintuitive point.
00:30:57
Ken Freire
yeah
00:30:59
Danchez
I think probably one of the biggest misunderstandings. That's probably a whole nother episode right there.
00:31:04
Ken Freire
Yeah, yeah.
00:31:04
Danchez
Like the five biggest misconceptions of solopreneurship.
00:31:04
Ken Freire
we'll We'll make that another episode.
00:31:07
Danchez
That's number one. But solo, not alone. Thank you for listening to this first episode. And I hope you continue listening and join us on this journey as we explore the next evolution of what it means to be solopreneur.