Streamlined Solopreneur: Tips to Help Busy Business Owners Save Time

Over the years, I’ve published a great many gift guides on my blog. From freelancers, to podcasters, to working from home, and even my hobbies — like pens and cigars. And this year is no different.

But given my relatively new focus on helping solopreneurs (and the fact that the “Work from Home” guide is starting to feel a little stale), I’ve decided to change things up in 2023.

That's why this year, I'm introducing the Solopreneur's Gift Guide. Enjoy!

Links

• The 2023 Solopreneur's Gift Guide
• View on Casabona.org

Recording / Video Conference Gear

• Elgato Facecam
• Elgato Facecam Pro
• Live Stream kit
• Samson Q2U
• Sennheiser PC 8 USB Headset
• Podcaster’s Gift Guide
• Hue Lights
• Elgato Key Light | Key Light Air
• Neewer 2 Pack
• Lume Cube for Video Conferencing

Home Office

• Steelcase
• HON Chairs
• Roller Blade Wheels for Office Chairs
• Jarvis by Fully
• E7 by FlexiSpot
• Moft Sit-Stand Laptop Desk
• Twelve South
• Logitech MX Master 3
• Keycron K2 Pro Mechanical Keyboard
• Ergonomic keyboard from Microsoft
• Monitor Arm by Fully

At Home Tech

• Western Digital My Book
• Backblaze
• Synology 2 Bay Storage NAS + some hard drives
• Western Digital Portable Hard Drive
• Samsung’s T7 portable SSD
• AirPods Pro II
• Skullcandy headphones
• Bose QuietComfort 45 Noise Cancelling headphones
• Audio-Technica ATH-M50s
• Stream Deck
• GaNPrime Hybrid Power Bank / Wall Charger
• MagSafe 3-in-1 Charging Cube (perfect for travel)
• Nano USB-C Power Bank
• Stands by Lab22

Productivity

• Sidekick Notebook
• Sidekick Notepad
• William Hannah A5 Classic Notebook
• Check out my Pen guide
• Analog from Ugmonk
• Todoist
• MindNode
• Bear
• Ulysses
• App Store Gift Card
• Setapp

Comforts of Home

• Cometeer
• Kru Doomcup
• Reading Jazzy Java
• Rook Nicaragua
• Nespresso
• OXO Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder
• Mahabis Slippers

Travel / Outside the House

• WaterField Designs
• Sling bag from Nomatic
• Timbuk2.
• Kindle Scribe
• AirTags
• AirFly by Twelve South
• At Your Best
• Forget the Funnel
• This is Personal
• Made to Stick

Sponsored by:

• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

Do you remember the most awkward moments of your life? One for me was definitely the day I was defending my master’s thesis. I was explaining a complex algorithm, when my advisor interrupted me and said, “Well…that’s not really how it works.” In front of my classmates, other faculty, and a number of friends who showed up out of support.

As you can imagine, I was mortified – until recovered, finished the presentation, and said, If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them. Unless it’s about that one algorithm. They you can ask Dr. Bishop.”

That got laughs, and I finished strong. I learned an important lesson that day: awkwardness will happen. It’s how you handle it that has a lasting effect. And that’s exactly what Dr. Henna Pryor is going to talk about with us today. She’s a keynote speaker, and her best-selling book, Good Awkward, came out in September with endorsements from people like NFL Quarterback Russell Wilson.

Top Takeaways

• We are living in a society that increasingly doesn’t need to use its “social skills” muscle. We don’t have to interact with as many people, and it’s making us feel worse.
• Awkward goes hand-in-hand with uncertainty. That means if you never want to feel awkward, you’ll never grow.
• In order to embrace uncertainty, and therefore awkwardness, we need to create more situations to “practice” than the current world gives us.

Show Notes

• Henna Pryor
• Henna Pryor Book
• Henna on Linkedin
• Henna on Instagram
• How to Stand Out When Everything is Competing for Attention with Steve Woodruff

Sponsored by: Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

A family walks into a talent agency, and says, “Have we got the act for you…”

If you’re familiar with this opening to a joke, you may have had a visceral reaction to it — either you think it’s hysterically funny, shamefully disgusting, or both. It’s the opening to the joke, The Aristocrats, and if you have a weak stomach, I don’t suggest you look it up.

See, the point of this joke isn’t actually the punchline, which is right in the title. The point is to see how long you can improv a shocking, disgusting, offensive story.

You can think about it as a secret handshake among comedians, that became not so secret after a 2005 documentary came out about it.

It going me thinking about the importance of telling a story.

This week, I got to speak to my friend Nick Benson’s college classes about Digital Storytelling.

Don’t worry, I didn’t tell The Aristocrats.

Instead, I spoke to them about why storytelling is so important in any content you create, especially podcasting.

Read the article here: https://podcastliftoff.com/podcast-storytelling/

Sponsored by:

• Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.
• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

Become a member at https://howibuilt.it/join

In a way, the chaotic start to our interview, followed by a calm, cool conversation, is a metaphor for Jordan’s business journey this year.

See, this isn’t just a story about how to hire good people for your business. It’s a cautionary tale, and proof that running a business is about always learning and adjusting.

Jordan runs an agency of high-level remote assistants.

Today, she’s telling us her own trials and tribulations with making what seemed to be the right hiring call but ended up plunging her business into a few chaotic months.

Don’t worry though, through patience and vigilance, she came out on the other side in a much better position. Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about what she’s doing for me…and why she’s contributed to me potentially leaving Airtable for Notion.

Top Takeaways

• You need to share your mission with your team early on. This ensures that you’re both aligned on the same values – which will form a stronger bond than a paycheck.
• Know when to communicate. Jordan saw that through hiring contractors, they were taking on too much, and as a result, the quality of their work slipped. Clear communication could have prevented the worst outcome for her: loss of clients.
• Know when to cut ties. Jordan saw that for her agency, a contractor relationship would not work. So she pivoted and decided to hire full-time employees instead. It took several months to find the right fit, but she’s happy she didn’t rush into the decision.
• When you do bring on new employees, make sure to have a rock-solid, hands-on training program. This will allow them to start learning and doing, from day 1.

Show Notes

• Jordan Eaton

Sponsored by: Lulu | Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.
• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

Become a member at https://howibuilt.it/join

It's podcast swap time! Except I'm telling you about another podcast of mine: Podcast Workflows. It's a daily podcast that focuses on how to help podcasters improve their processes. Every Wednesday, I do a deep dive into someone's process, and that's what I'm bringing you today.

Learn more at https://show.podcastworkflows.com/

Arielle Nissenblatt eats, sleeps, and breathes podcasts.

• Her main job is with a podcast company.
• Her newsletter is all about podcast curation.
• She runs a podcast community on Discord.

She loves podcasts so much that she, along with her co-host Tim Villegas, produce a podcast about podcasts. Well really, about podcast trailers specifically. It’s called Trailer Park.

You might think that this is too niche, but they got 10,000 downloads in just a few weeks. Their outreach process was crucial to achieving that goal. Read on to learn how they did it.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why a super-niche podcast is the path to success
• Spending some time in the edit can greatly enhance your show
• Pitching and direct outreach is still the best way to grow your podcast

Read the full article here: https://podcastworkflows.com/trailer-park-podcast/

If I wanted to cater to the current algorithm gods, I’d probably talk about how this interview is all about what AI can and cannot do for us. But it’s so much more than that.

Much like the problem with leveraging AI to do all of the heavy lifting, me positioning this episode as “about AI,” would be inauthentic. And authenticity…well that’s really what this episode is about.

Tom Schwab is someone who believes at his core that you’re just One Conversation Away from a profitable…and perhaps quite successful…business. So that’s what he helps people do. He helps them have conversations.

And today, you’re going to learn how to get better at having the right conversations, as well as how to leverage those conversations to build your authority…authentically.

Plus in the PRO show, Tom and I exchange podcast interview horror stories!

Top Takeaways

• Marketing is starting a conversation with someone who could be a great customer. But before you can do that, you need to get clear on what you do, and who you do it for. Obscurity is bad for business.
• When you go on podcasts, you’re having a conversation with potentially lots of people. This means you need to show up, be present, and make the host look like a genius for having you on!
• Go for quality over quantity. When I asked Tom about how to get on more podcasts he said, “More is not better. Better is better.” So use your time wisely, and show up fully for the listeners.

Show Notes

• Tom Schwab

Sponsored by: Lulu | Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.
• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

Become a member at https://howibuilt.it/join

Did you know that Netflix is also a gaming platform now? That Apple make TV shows? That Disney own a number of YouTube channels without the Disney branding? It’s because they know what Steve Woodruff knows.

If you’re a podcaster, you might think the competition is other podcasters. If you make movies, you might think the competition is another movie. You’d be wrong.

See, what Netflix, Apple, Disney, and Steve know, is that the competition is everything. People are assaulted every day by stimuli, and if you want to cut through all of the noise, you need to stand out by being an effective communication designer. And there’s no better person to tell us how to do that than the King of Clarity himself.

Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about using AI to write books, and Steve’s process for writing his latest book, The Point.

Top Takeaways

• The average American spends 7-10 hours per day in front of a screen. On top of that, we see 4,000-10,000 ads every day. In other words, there is a lot of stuff competing for our attention.
• You want to be pigeonholed! Instead of an “Elevator Pitch,” which sounds stuff and outdated, Steve prefers the term “Memory Dart.” What’s one sentence you can say to people so they know exactly what you do?
• If you’re not communicating clearly to an outsider, you’re not communicating clearly. You want to make sure your copy (website, LinkedIn profile, Twitter) makes sense to people who don’t know your work well.

Show Notes

• Steve Woodruff
• Steve in Linkedin
• Want to be a Better Speaker? Do THESE Things with Mike Pacchione
• Clarity Wins Book
• You’re Writing Your Business Book Wrong with Josh Bernoff

Sponsored by: Hostinger | Lulu | Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Hostinger: Get 10% off + 2 months free with code BUILD
• Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.
• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

Imagine running a high 7-figure business with over 300,000 followers on social media, then launching a podcast. How many downloads would you expect? 100,000? 150,000? What about…10?

We’ve all been there: we spend a TON of time pouring blood, sweat, and tears into a project just to have it launch to crickets. That’s exactly what happened to Yong-Soo Chung with his podcast. Despite the social following, no one cared about his show.

But instead of wallowing in self-pity or shutting the show down, Yong-Soo took action. He reactivated his 12-year dormant Twitter account, and started basically from scratch, growing to 20,000 followers in less than a year.

Now he has a great process for getting people from Twitter to his newsletter, to his podcast.

We’ll cover his entire journey and more. Plus, in the PRO show, we exchange notes on our production processes!

Life Lessons

• Have a clearly defined niche, and know how to reach people in that niche. Yong-Soo’s initial problem was a mismatch between his businesses and his show. Once he started to find people in the right niche, he started to find listeners.
• Share personal stories – these are the things that resonate with people, no matter what platform or niche. By being a little vulnerable, people will want to learn more about you and your story.
• Continuously hone your target avatar and make sure to grow your show to serve your audience and yourself. You need to be interested in the show – after all, that’s how you tell a good story.

Show Notes

• Yong-Soo Chung
• Yong-Soo in Twitter
• Yong-Soo in Instagram
• Yong-Soo in Linkedin
• Using AI to Craft a Listener Avatar
• Want People to Find Your Podcast? Do More Than Just Tweet with Deirdre Tshien

Sponsored by: Hostinger | Lulu | Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Hostinger: Get 10% off + 2 months free with code BUILD
• Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.
• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

Cohort-based courses are on the decline if the tastemakers are to be believed. And it makes sense. Now that people aren’t stuck at home, they probably don’t want to spend time interacting online when they can interact IRL. But that doesn’t mean that CBCs have no utility.

In fact, I think that there’s a great way we can make CBCs even better, by employing a tactic that has been explored in the K12 and higher education settings: the flipped classroom.

In the episode we’ll:

• Check out the flipped classroom model, a way to get students more involved and boost their learning.
• See how engaging teaching methods move past old school methods and foster better student participation.
• Learn some of the pitfalls of the flipped classroom in a practice.
• Measure the effect of customizing course material to suit students, a way to make education more personalized.
• See how the topic matters when considering the use of the flipped classroom model.
• Address how we can incorporate the flipped classroom model in cohort-based courses.

Sponsored by:

• Hostinger: Get 10% off + 2 months free with code BUILD
• Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.
• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

I love Hibachi. I love the food. I love the experience. That seems a lot like building in public, right? After all, the chef is literally cooking in front of us, building our meal. But according to Kevon Cheung – a guy who’s built his entire community by building in public – Hibachi is entertainment.

In order to build in public, you need to take your audience on a journey with you. That’s why he believes building in public is more like Omakase. This is where the chef will choose the foods for you, involve you in the process, and tell you a story about the food you’re eating.

That’s what Building in Public truly is, and today, we’re going to learn how to leverage it to build great communities and better products.

Top Takeaways

• You need to talk about something people care about, not just vanity metrics. No one cares what time you wake up to write. They want to know what you’re writing about, and why you chose to write about that topic.
• Only your competitors care about how you do something – your secret sauce. Your audience is invested in you, and they want to know about the journey…both the ups and the downs.
• You shouldn’t just announce something when you’re not sure it will do well. Instead, tell your audience you’re exploring an idea. Ask them about it, and involve them in the process. THEN, make a decision and share that with them, along with why you made the decision.

Show Notes

• Kevon Cheung
• Kevon in Twitter
• PublicLab
• Monica Lent
• What Happened to Wirecutter
• How To Build a $1000/year Membership with Jay Clouse
• Podcast Workflows book
• http://helpthisbook.com

Sponsored by: Hostinger | Lulu | Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Hostinger: Get 10% off + 2 months free with code BUILD
• Lulu: Sign up for free today and sell your book.
• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA