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Welcome to episode 279 of The Solopreneur Hour! Today we’ve got one of my favorite types of shows: our weekly Q&A session. This is your chance to get some solopreneur coaching.

Check out today’s episode to hear the latest from other listeners, whether you’re brand new to solopreneur life or are knee-deep in your business there’s something here for you! Listen in and enjoy this episode of The Solopreneur Hour.

The Solopreneur Hour Q&A

If you haven’t heard these shows before or are brand new here welcome! And you can join in the fun by submitting your own questions for the next Q&A over at our Proudly Unemployable Facebook group, or join the mailing list and you’ll get an email from me asking for your preguntas (that’s Spanish for questions).

Now let’s get into the show!

Benjamin Thompson
Q: Hey Michael. Welcome back home, hope all is well#dexstrong. My question: I’m launching a real physical magazine in addition to my online magazine. It’s a free glossy magazine about the homes and property industry in Ireland. As a freebie it’s entirely sponsored by advertisers.

How do I best hustle for paid advertisers? We are offering ads much cheaper than competitors plus online articles and editorial as a free bonus to provide a complete package for advertisers. Thanks!

A: Incentive your advertisers so they are being deployed online and offline, do something extra for them via social media or mailing list. The sweet spot here is to bring on a good copywriter who can write some innovative ads for these paid advertisers. Walk in with a strategy for your advertisers and you’ll hopefully create a win-win.


Harold Rhee 
Q: I have a personal and business (my podcast) Twitter profile. Same for several other platforms. Should I get rid of one or keep both? Thanks and positive thoughts for Dex.

A: I faced this same scenario so I’d say for Twitter keep your business going. For Facebook, have a good personal FB profile because it’s critical to success as a solopreneur. All the engagement comes from here! Instagram is now all business for me. If you want more details check out my social media marketing course to see what works, what to post and when.

Dave Conrey 
Q: What are your thoughts on the Patreon business model for monetizing a podcast? Also, do you know anyone offhand that’s running a kick@$$ podcast/website with Squarespace?

A: Don’t know anyone running a podcast or web site with Squarespace. I don’t think Squarespace is great plug-ins, it works well for people who don’t need plug-ins. Podcasting generally needs plug-ins so WordPress is better.

For question one I don’t know a lot about Patreon, I think Abel James may use this model. If you’re going the donation route like Patreon be sure to mention it often, people need reminders. Advertising is just taking hold in podcasting and you really only need about 2,000 downloads a show at this point, so look into that as well.

Robert Bone 
Q: You often say you are bad at celebrating when you achieve a goal, did you celebrate after you uploaded your podcast recorded on a beach?

A: That’s a complicated question! A week before that show I was ready to come home. It was a lot of solo time and I missed my life! Plus the devastating news about Dexter, so I recorded that show because I needed to. But honestly that was the worst day of my trip because of Dexter’s cancer so I didn’t really celebrate. The news about him just put a damper on the trip.

Thom Singer 
Q: How do YOU cut through all the crap, BS and bullshitters out there with programs and podcasts and identify the people to listen to, hire, and follow??— what is the trick to finding legit.

A: Great question! It’s something everyone needs to ask because there’s a lot of BS out there. The best way I know how to do this is to listen to their podcast, watch their videos, just consume their content and you’ll get what their core beliefs are. If you are in alignment with yours you’re a match. Or you could see a difference in values as a challenge and embrace it.


Jonny Keeley 
Q: Hey Michael hope all is well. I’ve heard a lot about Libsyn, is it the best? Is there additional podcast hosting? If so do you recommend any of them? Thanks.

A: There are a bunch. I use Libsyn minimally. I upload it, get an mp3 permalink and then I paste it into WordPress site and that publishes to iTunes. I know other people like SoundCloud; there are quite a few out there. You just have to decide if you want them to host your content or just to serve your mp3 file. There are a million ways to do this so you have to decide what’s best for you!


Ozeal DeBastos 
Q: Michael, Welcome back and glad you’re doing well brother. In a previous episode, you talked about how your podcast show developed into a full-fledged business with the addition of Sololab, private coaching, etc. During that time, were you ever challenged with other online revenue endeavors that distracted you away from Solohour? If so, how did you handle it? The “shiny object” syndrome is real!

Thanks and sending Dex some love!

A: I did not. I did tinker with doing the Patreon model at one point, but something didn’t go the way I thought it should so I didn’t pull the trigger. I’ve been very focused on doing this show and doing it in the proper way. So if you have put out a successful show and have hung in there after New & Noteworthy, or even if you’ve just launched, you can still make money helping people on how to launch their podcast.

Mike Wade
Q: With a small struggling business, that still has debt service….  How do I find a good marketing person?   How do I find a good sales person?

A: Mike runs one of the best online and offline seed companies I’ve seen. If you’re on LinkedIn and have looked there, venture elsewhere. Try Instagram. More than anything you want a marketing and sales person to demonstrate they know the lay of the land. You can contact them on Instagram and ask if they do any sales; they may be ripe for the picking (pun intended)!

You could go to oDesk or Virtual Staff Finder and ask for an expert in Pinterest and Instagram. Go marketing first and let sales evolve.

Jessica
Q: My struggles (as you know) are:
1.  Identifying my avatar. I don’t feel like I know enough about what I want my voice and my stance to be in the health and wellness industry yet. Do I go for people who need to lose weight? Do I focus on digestion? On healthy foods? Living a balanced life? Living a life you love?… so many options. It all ties in anyway, but I don’t have a brand and I don’t have an avatar and I want to start my website and a blog asap.

2. Choosing my media: I have a little experience now with being on video and a bit with podcasting because I’ve been on your show and a few others. I  definitely like both of those more than writing.
I’m having trouble picking because I like video better, but it’s more time consuming and I think more people will listen to audio more frequently than sit still to watch and listen to a video. I’d love your input here.

3. Do you have guidelines for solopreneurs on how to price their services and explain the value to potential clients?

A: Health is such a saturated market, certainly one of the most crowded spaces. You’re doing the right thing: head down, hustling and getting personal clients. You’re getting your reps in and that will help you define what you want to teach, and you’ll define what your audience wants.

I’d say you’re in the sweet spot for video. You have more opportunity in video, yes it’s more work but follow in Amy Schmittauer’s footsteps and the time factor will diminish. You could do a few videos a week and then a podcast once a week too.

For value think about what story you can leave your clients with that will correctly display your value. Find a way to document the time you put in, like a lawyer does. As far as pricing I’d say start at $50 an hour and go up from there.

Marc Bilker
Q: Hi Michael!
I’m glad you had a good trip. Also, I feel for you about Dex, we love them dogs like they’re people, maybe more. I’m still using Isa stuff and have kept the weight off (mostly) for a few years, but I can’t for the life of me get off my (not so) fat ass to promote the business side. After a small success early on I just stopped. Stuck.

A: You have to learn about sales in a network marketing company, you have to know how to sell to be successful. How you answer someone’s question about what you do is the difference between a sale or no sale. My answer always put people into a very intentional, repeatable process. I tried to get them to give me their contact info and ask them to call me with more information. So start at the end goal and work back from there.

Andrew Snider
Q: My new eBook Read to Speak Spanish has just launched on Kindle today. How do I target the right people to give copies to ask for reviews?

A: Those people should be your friends, family…get real-world users. Incentivize your audience to help you: email and let them know how helpful their ratings and reviews will be for your success.

Resources From The Solopreneur Hour
SoloLab, a Unique Mastermind
Join us on Facebook and be Proudly Unemployable
Social Media Ninja Tactics, my social media marketing training course
BB Seeds, Mike Wade’s seed company
Let’s connect on Twitter!