My first month as a solopreneur

One month into solopreneurship (what?!) and I feel like I’ve lived five lives already.

My weeks are full of trying new things, meeting people, mentoring others on marketing and personal branding, collaborations and learning. It’s been scary and overwhelming at times, but mostly better than I could have ever imagined.

I need to keep reminding myself why I chose this path — to follow my excitement and build a life I love with a ton of freedom in all kinds of meanings of the word, not other people’s expectations.

The past few days

– Tried bouldering, boxing, and aerial classes for the first time. All were a bit scary for sure but I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and I’m proud of that. Trying new things (in a safe, fun environment) makes me feel giggly and warm, especially when I go with friends. I found working out and seeing the people I love makes me feel the most alive. At this point I’m working out 5-6 times a week and I wouldn’t have it any other way! <3

– Started my days with reading the fantastic book “Essentialism. The Disciplines Pursuit of Less” and even though I am far from being one myself (yet), it really sets the tone for the day, and I love reading in the mornings now (rather than going straight to my laptop / phone).

– Got a new MacBook Air (!! M4, 24GB RAM - upgrade from my M1, 8GM RAM) A huge investment, especially now that I don’t have a regular income, but that thing is a MACHINE!! I don’t regret it one bit. My old one was lagging like crazy, and typing on it was torture. Now everything is smooth, fast, and I PROMISE I’m like 50x more productive. A reminder to invest into tools you literally use multiple hours every day. You deserve nice things :D

– Finished the second workshop in the 12-week side hustle course that I got invited to as one of the mentors. The feedback made me realise I know more than I give myself credit for — and that I should be more confident charging for my time (ongoing battle, ongoing theme, I know).

– Went on walks, worked from stunning coffee shops (I love Berlin), met up with old and new friends. My routines outside of “work” has been really helpful in making me feel a bit less anxious.

Autopilot = Off

The theme of the past week was reminding myself not to go into autopilot.

When I rush from task to task, I forget why I’m doing this in the first place.

I really need to remind myself EVERY DAY :D

I’m doing this to create a life I enjoy and I am in control of my weeks. Not other people. I can say no to opportunities that don’t feel right or will cost me too much of my energy and time. Somehow saying NO has been the biggest battle this past month.

And: I need to stop putting unrealistic expectations on myself.

Like with the Notion for Marketers event I’m planning (the 5th one).

I kept putting off hosting another one because of thoughts like “how can I make this one bigger, better, different?”. The thing is, these meetups are not about bigger, better etc. They are good enough. I get great feedback. People are happy. So why reinvent everything every time? It’s about creating space for people to meet, learn, and connect. That’s the goal. And that’s enough.

I swear I make life hard for myself unnecessarily.

P.S. If you’re in Berlin & want to keep up to date with meetups I’m hosting, here’s the luma calendar for launch/anyway (solopreneur events) and the Notion for Marketers events.

Looking back on Month One

Exactly a month ago, I quit my job.

Since then:

– launched launch/anyway solopreneur community + website
– 3 freelance clients signed (lower pricing to get feedback, testimonials and test the offering and processes, so definitely can’t live off of this yet by far).
– 12 people mentored (including via GrowthMentor)
– 3 sponsored posts published on LinkedIn (Chronicle + Framer - absolute dream collab!)😍
– 11 discovery calls + 13 coffee chats (that’s a lot of meetings :D September should be calmer)

And yes, like I mentioned last week — a lot of anxiety and imposter syndrome too.

I’m doing many things for the first time, and doing the things I dreamed of doing for a LONG time, so I think that’s normal (even if it’s annoying to not feel confident in everything from the start haha).

What I’m building next

– A new version of my personal branding dashboard in Notion (here’s v.1). The first version was downloaded 700+ times, and since then I came up with a nice system to help literally ANYONE who thinks about building a personal brand, build one and do it well. I’ll test this dashboard with some mentees and clients, and will lyk once it’s live if you like!:)

Here’s a sneak peak:

– In Framer, I’ve built a waitlist for a potential LinkedIn personal branding course for marketers (who are dreaming of quitting their 9–5 one day). You can sign up here if you’re curious. Still figuring out pricing, so if you have thoughts on that, I’d love to hear what’s realistic to charge for something like this. For courses I see prices as low as 50 to as high as 800+ for so it’s a really wide range:D

Tools I leaned on this week

– Dia browser (from the founders of Arc): I’ve switched to Dia from Chrome and there is no going back. Now that my laptop can handle it (on my old one it was too laggy to enjoy). It basically has embedded free AI chat. You can talk to your tabs, summarize Youtube videos, create custom skills… I have one that brainstorms better YouTube titles and thumbnail ideas for my videos - it’s so cool!! Highly recommend.

– AppBlock: a browser extension that stops me from mindlessly scrolling on LinkedIn and other social media. It lets you add schedules, for example in the morning I wanna avoid LinkedIn until the time I need to post. After that I wanna block it again, and can check in on messages etc in the evening. On my phone, I’ve been using “OffScreen App” for over 2 years now.

– Again, my new laptop: hands down best investment I’ve made this year — feels like (vegan) butter typing this newsletter. So smooth!! Video editing is now a joy. Typing is a joy. Using Notion is a joy. If you’ve been thinking of upgrading your tools, let me be the one to encourage you!!:)

Question for you

In what ways have you challenged yourself this month?

Thanks for being here, and for reading my lil reflections. I’m figuring things out as I go — and it helps to know I’m not doing it alone. Reply if you feel like sharing your own “firsts” this month, I’d love to hear.

Talk soon,
Maria