Future-Proof Your Solo Biz: Stay Relevant Without Losing Your Mind

Watch the Episode on YouTube

If you're still getting your business advice from that one guy on LinkedIn who hasn't updated his profile since 2014... this episode is your wake-up call.

We're diving into what it really means to future-proof your solo business—and spoiler: it’s not just about hopping on the latest tech trend. From decluttering your feed to actually talking to your audience, Carly and Joe share no-fluff strategies to help you stay ahead without burning out.

Whether you’re overwhelmed by AI hype or stuck in scroll mode, this episode will help you cut through the noise and tune into what actually matters to help you run a successful solo business.

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. 

So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, click here to check out LifeStarr Intro!

Episode Transcript

Carly Ries: If you're anything like us, you want your solo business to run smoothly now and be ready for whatever curveball comes your way. In this episode, we dive into one of the best ways to future proof your business, and that's staying on top of trends. But don't worry, we're not talking about chasing every shiny new thing. We're talking about curating your feed, setting up smart alerts, listening to your audience, and tuning into the places where real conversations are happening. So tune in and get the tips you didn't know you needed.

You're listening to the Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Ries, and my cohost, Joe Rando, and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of one. We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work. And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you.

So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. So, Joe, when it comes to building a successful solo business, you obviously want it to run smoothly in the present, but you also want to future proof it or at least future proof it as best as you can to prepare for any curveballs that may come your way. Obviously, COVID was something that the monstrosity of it was nothing that most business owners could have predicted. But there are some things that you can kind of gauge the ebbs and flows of that I kinda wanted to address today.

So one of those is to stay actually, the only topic I want to discuss today is staying on top of trends because that is one way that you can future proof your business.

Joe Rando: Yeah.

Carly Ries: for people that are not using AI right now, they are not staying on top of a trend, and they are falling behind in a sea of competition that is using AI to better streamline their businesses.

Joe Rando: But it's important to note that there are people that are using AI wisely, and there are people that are using AI poorly and still trying to convince you that they're using it wisely, and you don't wanna jump on that train. So I don't know if we wanna dig deep here today, Carly, but, using AI to create your content for you, you know, carte blanche is very, very, very bad.

Carly Ries: Joe, we can spend a whole episode talking about that. But today, I feel like let's talk about ways that we can really stay on top of trends just in general. ChatGPT maybe wasn't the best example from a trend standpoint because I don't think it's a trend. I think it's here to stay.

Joe Rando: Well, yeah, a trend. It's a trend kind of like automobiles and airplanes and

Carly Ries: Yes.

Joe Rando: And the Internet. There are people that said the Internet was a fad. but, yeah, I think you're right.

But, yeah, in agreement.

Carly Ries: My biggest tip for people who want to stay on top of trends, and the easiest thing they can do is to declutter their news feed and start following people that would that they need to pay attention to for their business. I know for LinkedIn let's use LinkedIn, for example. I follow so many people where I just scroll past their posts because I followed them at one point and just haven't taken the time to unfollow them. But then I end up not seeing the posts that I should be following that are relevant to our business because there's just so much clutter preventing me from getting to it. So the first thing I recommend for people is to start unfollowing people you genuinely just don't pay attention to.

You're simply an impression that sees their post, and you just keep scrolling. Get it to a place where you're only following people that can benefit you and your business, whether that's competition, whether that's people that you admire and you strive to be, whether that's people who are good with industry trends or people that share similar audiences. But just make sure it's things that you actually care about, and then get rid of the fluff.

Joe Rando: I totally agree with that. But there's also the fact you have to be aware of what the trends are. Right? So sometimes you need to identify what the trends are in order to then know who you should follow or not follow. I'll give you an example.

We had someone on one of our solopreneur success sessions recently, Elin Giczi, and she talks about how to make LinkedIn videos that work. you know, a couple of years ago, LinkedIn videos wasn't really a big deal. It was, mostly text posts and things, and maybe, you know, you have some graphics, then it was kind of the carousel kinds of things. But now all of a sudden, LinkedIn videos are huge, and anybody that's not doing LinkedIn videos is probably gonna get left behind. And that's something I've been working on personally because I don't love videos.

I've said a hundred times, but it's gotta be done. you know, sometimes you have to do a little work just to kinda see what's happening in whatever it is, in this case, LinkedIn, to know that something's a trend. And, maybe there's somebody talking about it, and you can find them and subscribe to the newsletter. But there is a certain amount of not just, you know, abdicating your responsibility to keep up on trends to somebody else that's supposed to tell you, if you get my drift.

Carly Ries: Yeah. No. That's a great point. And once you know what those trends are, like, subscribed to newsletters, which is super important.

But you can also set up, Google or set up social monitoring where you will be alerted of these trends. So you're not constantly manually going in and searching for these, but you can actually get notifications through social media as well as your email of what's going on. Again, whether it's directly related to your business or something that could impact your business that's a bigger picture thing.

Joe Rando: Yeah. And I mean, you need to put, that time on your calendar as part of working on your business to do some research, poke around a little bit. And you know, hard. It's just a matter of taking that time to say, hey, what's happening? There was a newsletter called trends.

I don't know if it's still around anymore. I haven't seen it recently. But, that used to be a little bit interesting. You know, 90% of it didn't matter to me, but every once in a while, I was like, that's interesting. But I'm not sure where that's at these days.

I'll have to check into it.

Carly Ries: Perfect. Well, the other thing that I think is hard for solopreneurs is it can get so easy to start working in a silo. So even if you are getting these notifications, if you are actively talking to your audience, to people in your industry, to competitor like, people that competitors might target, and actually putting yourself out there and engaging, you're gonna be falling behind in the trends because that's where you get so much of that information. We have a foodie Facebook group here in my city, and people chatter about what went wrong, what didn't, all these things. And it's kinda like the behind the scenes take of the restaurant scene here in town.

You're not gonna find that from a Google alert or a newsletter or anything. But you'll find it by actually paying attention to what people are saying. Your target let's say you're trying to open a restaurant, you'll find it by what people are saying behind the scenes. And unless you're paying attention and actively involved in these communities or getting out in person and talking to these communities, you're going be missing some of the chatter that's going on that you want to get just from the typical notifications that you get in the digital world.

Joe Rando: Those restaurant owners should be in that following those carefully.

Carly Ries: Oh, they are. And they communicate because it's a very, very active Facebook group.

Joe Rando: Yeah. just making excuses.

Carly Ries: Yeah. Exactly. So just know what people are saying. But those are my biggest tips to set up those alerts for you to take the time to stay on top of trends and then to actually network and get to know the people that would impact your friends.

Joe Rando: Yeah. I just got one more thing I wanna say, and this is really important. depending on your business, it may be more or less important. If you're, you know, custom horseshoe maker, maybe trends aren't as important. You know, horse technology isn't really, at least as far as I know, hasn't gone a long way in the last hundred years.

You know? Horseshoes are horseshoes. But if you're, doing the kinds of things that most of us are doing, you're gonna be impacted by trends. But watch out for the shiny object syndrome. It's also easy to go, oh, look at that.

Oh, that's happening. And jumping on every new trend and you know, I am the kind of person that tends toward that. If it looks cool, if it's interesting, if it's exciting, I tend to wanna jump into it, But it doesn't help because you end up going in too many directions.

Carly Ries: Yeah. Makes you go nuts. But anyway, those are our 2¢ for staying on top of trends to better future proof your business. To future proof our business, we need those review reviews and these shares and the likes. So please leave a five star review, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and share with a friend, and we will see you next time on the Aspiring Solopreneur.

You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.