In this insightful episode, Liz Steblay, Founder & Chief Advocate of Professional Independent Consultants of America, shares practical wisdom for starting your consulting journey as a solopreneur. If you fear uncertainty or doubt about launching your own business, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– What key business skills you need to thrive independently
– Why clarity on your purpose drives your success as a solopreneur
– How to build confidence to overcome fear and uncertainty
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the Start scale and succeed podcast, the only podcast that grows with you through every stage of your journey as a founder and here with us today to help those of you who are thinking about embarking on the founder’s journey from the very beginning, maybe even thinking about jumping in as a coach or consultant like we do here at scale architects, we have a tremendous episode in store for you because our guest, I didn’t I realized I didn’t ask you how to say your last name. Liz, tablay, stab, lay, stab, play. Okay, fantastic. Let’s do that again. All right, here we go. Stab, bla, Okay, hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the Start scale and succeed podcast, the only podcast that grows with you through all seven stages of your journey as a founder, and for those of you who are listening today, who might be thinking about starting that your very own founder’s journey, maybe even as a coach or consultant like we do here at scale, architects, you are in for an absolute, true trip a treat, because here with us today is the one and only Liz stablay who became a solopreneur, preneur before the word was even invented. Upon being laid off, she called a former colleague, and a week later, she had her first consulting contract. Five years later, she founded the proCO agency, representing independent consultants on projects with Fortune 500 clients. As a result of growing proCO into a national business, Liz has become known as the person to call if you have questions about self employment in 2018 she launched professional independent consultants of America, pica, and it’s an educational organization and community that helps people start and grow their solo businesses. She’s here with us today. Liz, welcome to the show. So excited to have you on and this is a passionate project for me, because I didn’t mention this before we started, but the biggest mistakes that I made, at least financially from a business perspective, were made on the advice of some coaches and consultants that we had hired. Now I didn’t realize I had hired the wrong coaches and consultants at the time, but they also didn’t realize that they were giving me the wrong advice, and they weren’t bad people. They weren’t trying to hurt us. They were actually trying to help us solve the problem that we asked them to help us solve, but it was the wrong problem, and they didn’t know to help us through that. And that was so discouraging for me, because I thought like, well, if I can’t solve it, and they can’t solve it, and it gets worse. Whenever I hire a coach, I guess I’m all alone. And I didn’t realize until actually, some time after, ironically, getting into coaching and consulting, how many people have had an experience like that? There’s a lot of wonderful people who, in the right context, are great coaches, but many of them, for all kinds of reasons, some of which I think we’ll be able to tackle here today, end up, in some cases, doing more harm than good. So finding someone like you who helps Coaches and Consultants really do their best work, both for their own business and for those that they serve is really, really something special. So you’ve done a lot of this, and so thinking about someone who’s listening today, and let’s go all the way to the beginning of the story. And they’re wondering if consulting is their path. What would you say is the first question they should ask themselves to decide if that’s right for them?
Liz Steblay
Yeah, actually, there’s not just one question, Scott, but there’s a series of questions. And it’s funny, right before I joined this recording today, I was coaching somebody, and she had dropped into one of my free Ask Me Anything sessions, and she said, I really think I want to get started on my own as a consultant, but I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what to do. How do I need to prepare? How do I need to plan? So I feel like I just rehearsed what we’re about to talk about. So what I told her is the very first important thing is to be very clear on your why, why are you doing this? How is it going to change your life? How is this going to change your life financially? How is it going to change your the quality of your life, your relationships with your family? And I’ve actually documented all of these questions in a blog, and the easiest way to get to it is to go to P I C, a network.org/y, I’m sure you can put that in the slow show notes, because there’s this whole series of questions. And the reason why this is so important is because being self employed as a solopreneur or entrepreneur is the hardest job you’ll ever have. It’s not for everybody. It’s the hardest job you’ll ever have, because you have to push your boundaries, you have to learn new things, you have to try things you’re you’ve never done before, and you have to face your fears, overcome your fears, and it’s also the most rewarding job you’ll ever have. But when you have those tough times, and everybody does, I’m sure you. Can agree, when you’re self employed, it’s helpful to pull out, I call it the North Star document, and remind yourself, Oh yeah, right, this is why I’m doing it. So the North Star document and knowing, knowing your why is critical, yeah.
Scott Ritzheimer
So you’ve had the opportunity to coach a lot of executives and consultants alike. And just for anyone listening, I’m going to use executives, not in the literal term executives, but folks who have, have had successful careers, and in this case, are thinking about becoming consultants. So you’ve, you’ve been able to coach a lot of those folks and the folks who actually make the leap. And what would you say is the biggest difference? Because a lot of folks think, hey, being a consultant is just doing what I do now, except that I don’t have to give a big chunk of it to the man, right? Like I don’t have to do it for a big corporation. I can do it for myself. So what are some of the key differences between being a great executive and those folks who go on to become great consultants?
Liz Steblay
Yes, I’ve coached 1000s of people through the PICA organization, some of them were high powered executives, others mid career. And there’s have been a lot of lessons learned throughout that journey, and one of the differences is if you continue to perceive yourself as an executive, and even on your LinkedIn profile, whatever, and you’re like, Oh, I’m a, you know, Chief Financial Officer, and, you know, as a as an executive, I really, truly understand the nature of this problem and how to do these things. If you put yourself in your client’s shoes, they might not want to hire an executive, because that has the perception of somebody who’s going to just be setting a strategy and is not really going to roll up their sleeves and get stuff done. So I have a bias against using the word executive. Yeah. But the other key thing, and this, I know you’re using the term executive broadly, I tend to use the word just professionals who are thinking about making the leap to being self employed. The other thing is that you need to. You might be really great at what you do, but you really don’t know how to run a business, right? That’s true for pretty much everybody who steps into being self employed, right? You’ve been in digital marketing for a corporation for 20 years, and now you know you could be a fractional executive doing this, or a fractional digital marketing expert or a consultant, whatever coach, whatever your term is, but you need to know how to structure your business, to attract clients, how to do the pricing, how to do your marketing, how to do Your contracting, all of those things which are actually now covered in my book, which you didn’t mention when you introduced me. It’s called succeeding as a solopreneur. Six keys to taking the leap, winning clients and building wealth. And it takes you through all of those steps. Many people think the first thing they need to do is set up an LLC or corporate structure, and that is not even one of the top three things.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right, right, I love that, and we’ll make sure, folks, you can get a copy of the book, because it’s just right on point. And judging what I know about some of the other work that you’ve done is phenomenal. So this idea that we may not know how to run a business, a lot of folks might kind of think, yeah, yeah. But Liz, like, this is what I do. I’m a business leader. Of course I know how to run a business like, help us kind of slice the difference between that. Because, yes, you’re in business, but there’s something different. What does it mean to actually run your business?
Liz Steblay
Well, you wear all the hats, right? Whether you’re a solopreneur or an entrepreneur. The difference between entrepreneur and solopreneur is pretty much entrepreneurs are growing something bigger than themselves, and they tend to have employees, and most solopreneurs just want to do their craft and make a great living and not deal with all the headaches of having employees and things like that. But where was I going with this. The key difference is you wearing, you’re wearing all the hats. So when you have a technical difficulty, you can’t call that the help desk, right? That’s my single biggest I’ve been self employed over 20 years. That’s my single biggest frustration. Is when something goes wrong with my computer. That is the worst thing. But you also have to be, you know, the Chief Marketing Officer, the Chief Revenue Officer. You have to be the CFO. Now, some of these things you can outsource, and that is that is also important, is knowing when does it make sense to not do it yourself and to hire somebody to help you with that, not on a full time basis. So I run a multi million dollar business, not the educational organization, pica, but the other one you mentioned, Proko. And I have fractional talent that runs that business. I have a fractional CFO, fractional head of talent. All of those people are part time. So you need to learn. When does it make sense for you not to do it yourself? So for example, when in my earlier. Yes, I despite having an MBA, I’m terrible at math, I have no physical responsibility or discipline whatsoever. And I was managing my accounts in Quicken, which is perfectly fine software. And I would transfer, do the do the transactions in Quicken, and then forget to actually move the money in the bank from the business account to my personal account, and then I’d find out that I only have $500 in my personal account. Like, what the heck happened? Because I forget to actually do the whole process. So I realized, okay, I should not be handling my own money. I should not be doing my own accounting. So that was very early on. I realized I’ve got to find somebody on a part time basis. Who can just take it? Take those off my plate, because no human is good at everything. So when you can realize what, where, what are the chinks in your armor, and find somebody to help you do that on a part time basis? Yeah,
Scott Ritzheimer
So good. So because they don’t have to be full time, they don’t have to be they don’t even have to be employees. And, yeah, there’s so much help that’s out there, and it’s available today. So bringing the conversation back to the individual who’s making this decision, because they do sit at the center of of it all. What would you say after doing this so many times? What are some of the most common traits that you see that set those apart who thrive as consultants from those who would just dream about it.
Liz Steblay
Yes, that’s actually chapter two in the book. Character Strengths of a successful solopreneur. And I’m not going to open the book right now and tell you what they are, but I will tell you what the number one is. The top one is confidence. And confidence is the single most important factor across anybody, any of the 1000s of people that I have coached over the last 20 years, and it affects everything from how you go to market to how you price your services and how you push through the tough times, is just knowing that you’re smart enough to figure it out. Confidence doesn’t have to mean that you’re, you know, you’ve got it all figured out. You know, this imposter syndrome can can pop up at any moment. That doesn’t mean that you have to have the confidence, yes, you’re good at whatever it is your craft. Is your skill, whatever you’re providing to your clients, but it also is the confidence to know that you’re smart enough to figure out what you don’t know, right? And that’s a lot. You know, the first chapter in the book is about conquering FUD fear, uncertainty and doubt. That’s what holds people back. I call it the FUD monster, and it’s that little creature that sits on your shoulder and whispers in your ear and that says, Who are you, Scott, to leave a full time job? What are you nuts? You don’t know how to launch a business, you don’t know how to price your services, you don’t know how to negotiate a contract. And we all get that little FUD monster voice. And so the most important thing is to have the confidence to know how to tackle that FUD monster. Figure out what you don’t know, and work your way, work your way through whether it’s a fear, uncertainty or doubt, and self confidence is the number one character strength.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, flipping that question around, what are some of the traits, characteristics, drives, passions, that are assigned to you that maybe it’s not a great idea, and you might just be able to find the fulfillment you’re looking for in being a professional or an employee or an executive for someone else.
Liz Steblay
Yes, I run a I run a boot camp for getting getting started boot camp. I used to do a cohort based now I do them one on one, but I had a guy in a cohort a few years ago. He had been a vice president at some high tech company in Silicon Valley, and he said there’s he was the expert in optimizing data centers or some really esoteric thing, which is good. He had a very clear niche, but within nine months, he bounced back to a full time job in the reason was he didn’t have the focus to he had shiny object syndrome. So I in the boot camp, you have very clear assignments. And I say, okay, so how’d you guys do on whatever this assignment was this last week? And he says, Oh, well, I started to work on the outline for my website, but then I realized I needed to update my other website that has to do with my real estate investments, and so I did that instead, so he didn’t have the ability to really focus on what it took to start and run his business, and just that business, not all these other things that he was distracted by and he really needed the structure of a corporation, of having quarterly business objectives, of having a team, you know, having a weekly meeting with his team, or A monthly meeting with his boss, or going into the office every day, or, you know, he needed that structure, right? So that is one of the, one of the things that I think people need to think about. And it’s in that wide document too, is, or actually, sorry, that’s in a different, a different blog I wrote, which is nine things to consider before. Taking the leap, and that’s one of them. Are you? Are you a self starter? Can you focus? Can you really stay driven on that you’re on the goal? Or do you need more structure in your life?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I would say, to add to that, just briefly, I would say one of the biggest keys to starting your own business is finishing things. Yes, yeah. So we think that starting means starting. Means starting. It’s just, Oh, I get to start all this stuff, but it’s actually getting down, doing the dirty fingernails work, and getting stuff done. So Liz, just so much brilliant advice in there, and I’m excited to point folks to how they can get a copy of the book and learn more. But before we get there, I’ve got one more question for you. And the question is this, what would you say is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all. What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Liz Steblay
That you don’t have to do it alone? I mean, that’s another one of the big fear uncertainties and doubts that people have. It’s like, okay, I’m gonna step out on my own. I don’t know how to do all these things and but now there’s so many other people out there that have taken the path that you’ll find. And I hear this time and again from people who are in the pica community, is that that’s the single biggest surprise that they’ve had, is how collaborative and helpful other solopreneurs are. And now there’s resources like like, the reason I founded pika six, seven years ago is because nothing existed. People were coming to me and asking me out to coffee twice a week, asking me the same questions over and over again. I said, Okay, there’s got to be a better way to help more people, because nothing existed. And so now that’s the biggest thing that people need to know, is that you just because it’s called solopreneurship. You don’t have to do it alone.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s so good, so good. Liz, folks are just at the right stage of the journey. They’re in this mode. They’re trying. They want to help other folks. They want to start their own business. They’re not real sure how or why, or any of those things. Where can they get a copy of the book? Where can they find more out about the work that you do?
Liz Steblay
Yes, the easiest way is to go to sixkeys.info, not.com because I’m all about keeping expenses low. So sixkeys.info, it’s easy for people to remember if they’re listening to this while commuting or jogging or whatever the heck. And from that’s the landing page for the book. But from there, you can also link over to find out more about the educational organization PICA, or learn more about me and sixkeys.info.
Scott Ritzheimer
Brilliant. We’ll get that the blog in the show notes for everyone who is listening wants to get back to those both fantastic resources. Liz, thanks for being on the show. Just a privilege and honor having you here today. So much great advice for someone on this stage of the journey. Really loved the conversation. Thank you. And for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us, I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Liz Steblay
Liz Steblay became a solopreneur before the word was even invented. Upon being laid off, she called a former colleague, and a week later, she had her first consulting contract. Five years later, she founded the ProKo Agency, representing independent consultants on projects with Fortune 500 clients. As a result of growing ProKo into a national business, Liz has become known as the person to call if you have questions about self-employment. In 2018 she launched Professional Independent Consultants of America (PICA), an educational organization and community that helps people start and grow their solo businesses.
Want to learn more about Liz Steblay’s work at Professional Independent Consultants of America? Check out her blog and website at picanetwork.org/why or get a copy of her book, Succeeding as a Soloprenuer, at sixkeys.info