Is Running Your Own Business (or being a Solopreneur) a Young Person's Game?

Why is it that podcast I used to enjoy, seem to slowly be taken over by interviews with people in their 20's and 30's talking about how they've become millionaires doing  and that it's so simple even your non tech savvy grandpa can do it. In fact, with some go-getter, don't stop attitude, you too can have your cake and eat it to. Or can you? Does living the good life, or at least a life where you aren't working on your business 24/7 only materialize if you are tech savvy, or in your 20's, or in your 30's or drink on the ability to grind, remember you why, and be hungry? I don't know, so let's talk about it.

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Music: One Fine Day by Keep Calm Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, this is Ray with Get Real Ray, a place and space for life and business tips from this creative soul to hopefully inspire you on your journey, or at the very least, provide you with some laughs. And so let's get real. Let's get real about whether this whole solopreneur thing is really a young person's game. Craving real advice. How are you feeling like every other small business owner or solopreneur is waking in the dough? Well, you just seem to be waking, secretly looking for a reminder that starting your own business is not as glamorous as others make it look. Whether you're looking to change the game in your relationships at home or at the workplace, you come to the right place. Because this body is about to be busy all up in your business. So let's get it real. Okay, so with this podcast web series, as well as with um one of my other podcasts, maybe actually two of them, I have been trying to move past the whole point of just get it done, just get something out there, and more into a realm of let's plan out the things that I want to say so that we have something that's really concise for audiences to digest. That's what I owe audiences. And to be fair, you don't want to go to a doctor and have a doctor be like, well, you know, honestly, I'm not really sure what's going on with these test results, but we'll give it a go. You're like, uh, doctor, if you need to talk to somebody else to figure out what's going on with those test results, or if you just had like a really rough day in traffic, um, I can I can talk to you about these results tomorrow. We ain't gotta do this right now. So I do think that at some point, whether you are running a business or performing some sort of work for someone else, you're working for another company and you are in charge of something, then it is ideal to want to bring your A game. I mean, ideally, what? We want to bring our A game always, we want to provide the best product and service always. However, it's not as simple as wanting and then executing, right? Yeah, some days as a doctor, you're gonna find yourself bummed out because you're stuck in traffic or bummed out because your spouse uh was supposed to do something and then didn't do it, and so you guys are having some friction at home. Your kid is not doing well in a subject where you feel like my kid should be doing awesome in this. I know this subject, I can help my kid with this. Why doesn't my kid let me help them? There are just so many reasons why in life, even though we should be able to give our A game, we just aren't. We aren't. And I didn't have time. Well, did I have time? I mean, I had the time, I took a nap today. So one could argue that in the concept of time itself, there was time, it existed, it was passing. I could have sat down and really planned out this episode. But I planned out a completely different episode. I planned it out, and then I said to myself, I don't have the energy to record what I've just planned. And that's been kind of a thing with me this weekend. Some stuff that I have planned out, I have executed on, I've done it. And some things I'm like, oof, I need to be in a different state of mind in order to deliver that the way I want to deliver it. I could just try, I could just go for it, right? Just be like, I think I know what these test results mean, it's it's been a while, but I'm behind schedule today, and you know, just gonna go for it. So I could have just gone for it. But I also knew that because I was so interested in what I wanted to share, and I liked my plan so much that I would just be doing myself a disservice and I'd be you. I'd be doing you a disservice too. I'd be you, I'd be doing you a disservice as well. And if we are going back to that doctor patient scenario, then yeah, the doctor really wouldn't be helping out the patient after doctor was just like, and let me just tell this patient something to get them out of here, right? And so I decided to put this little episode in a different direction, and that direction kind of came to me out of the fact that I was like, oh man, I really I want I want to record this episode. It's the day that I released episodes, there should have been already something in queue. There isn't anything in queue. Do I really want to go another week missing not delivering on my promise? How many promises can I not deliver on right now? Um, now, little side note, I have more than one podcast, I have more than one web series. And uh, let's see here. One web series hasn't had anything posted in a month. I have four episodes all in the editing process. They are in the editing process, but I just haven't been able to finish that editing and put them live. So that makes me really sad. And I have um another series which just for the first time fell behind. So the episode was supposed to go live to public on a Monday, and it went live on a Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

I was so sad.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

I'm like, no, I was doing so good. It's like when you start the diet and you lose the weight. You're like, yes, I started the diet, I'm losing the weight, I'm doing so good, and you're really chugging along, and then you find yourself, oh, I'm I'm sick one day, and so um I'm going to have a little soup and some crackers to feel better, and then you start feeling better, and you're like, oh, I've been so good, and I've just been eating soup and crackers. I'm tired of soup and crackers. Um I want a cookie. I mean, it's not gonna hurt me, it's one cookie, and then you're down the slippery slope, and then you realize the entire bag of cookies is empty, and you're covered in crumbs. Maybe that's just me. Maybe it's just happened to me and it hasn't happened to you. But with that being said, I have I was so proud of myself for honoring my commitment and the fact that I had set up this schedule. I worked really hard to prepare all these episodes in advance. So we've talked a lot about on this channel about pre-planning, being prepared, doing things in advance, so that when you do have that day when you're sick, you can not worry. Oh my gosh, the thing's gonna get done. Um, and we've also talked about how as much as you can prepare, sometimes things just happen and you can't do what it is that you wanted to do or you said you were gonna do. Sometimes it just happens, right? So, with all of that being said, I was bummed. I was bummed, ma'am, here I am. I was on such a good track, and boop, here I am, I messed it up. And so this weekend I was looking and trying to figure out am I really gonna get this done? Is it going to go live tomorrow like it's supposed to? And part of me is just tired, like, I'm not in the mental space to do this right now. I don't want to do it, so maybe I won't do it. Why did I even agree to do this stuff anyway?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

It's so much work.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

And that's when I have to go back to my whys. And if you're not new to the channel, then you might remember that we've talked about whys before. Whoop whoop. So you you you know, you've heard all those um self-improvement gurus talking about it. Uh let's see, Tony Robinson's talking about it. What's your rye? Uh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Is it Eric? Is it Eric? Oh man, what is this man's name? Oh man, I'm gonna I don't want to get it wrong. I don't want to call out the wrong person. Um, I'm gonna have to put it at the bottom of the screen because there's this guy who goes, What makes you hungry? Uh, what are you hungry for? It's it's so funny. Um, and so hit that's all his version of Witch or Why. And then uh Lester, is it Lester Brown? Lester, well, he also says uh uh talks about being hungry. What's up with these guys all talking about being hungry? Uh one guy, the preacher, the is it the he the hip-hop preacher? Okay. Well, the first hungry guy, um, for him, it was the lion and the gazelle. And do you want to be the lion or do you want to be the gazelle? So you have to go out there and I'm vegan, so I don't really want to go around eating gazelles, but then I don't want to be eaten either. So, where does that put me in this scenario, sir? And then um, with Les, I think it's Les Brown, uh his thing is also about being hungry. You gotta be hungry. Uh, it's really fun to listen to his clips online. Um, and so with that being said, was I really in a state of hunger? Did I really put my whys at the forefront? Tony Robbins talks about how uh if your arm is chopped off, uh you you would promise a million dollars. You'd suddenly you work really hard to figure out how you can get a new arm if that's what was required in order to get the million dollars, something like that. So, with that being said, I told myself your reasons for not wanting to get this episode done just they're not enough. Yes, you are tired, but you've been tired the last few days. And you took a little bit of a break yesterday, and you worked hard on something else yesterday. So you know this has to be done, and you know you're gonna be even more disappointed yourself if you put this off any longer. So just do a little more, see how it goes. Do a little more, see how it goes. And that was kind of like my my thing to myself all day is do a little more, see how it goes. And I finished it. I finished it, I finished the editing, I put it live, uh, and well, I put it in queue to go live tomorrow, and I feel good about that. And that renewed feeling of okay, okay, I'm back on track. I'm back on track. Yeah, sure. Last week uh something went live on Thursday, but I am back on track. Anyone who actually looks forward to those episodes, they're gonna find their episode tomorrow and be like, oh yay, it's back on track. Side note there's a Sherlock Holmes podcast that I love. And it's narrated by Hugh Bonnerville. And episodes usually come out on Wednesdays, and I was like, it's Wednesday first thing in the morning. I'm reaching for my phone. I'm looking to see, is there a new Sherlock Holmes? And then I have to like try not to listen to it until dinner time. Um love it so much. But recently I noticed, oh, I I thought it was a mistake. I'm like, oh, there's this episode that's been released early, like three or four days early. Did I miss something? Did it change, did, did, did I miss an episode this past week? Oh my dear. And then I saw this morie. I'm like, oh, there's an there's another episode. Have they changed their schedule? I don't know. They don't have to tell me if they've changed their schedule. Maybe they did announce they've changed their schedule, and I just like didn't even know. But all that being said, I really do enjoy the content. I'm not gonna stop listening because they changed their schedule, or if it's released early on mistake or not mistake, doesn't even matter. I'm enjoying the content. And so even though um the data and the people who analyze the data say that consistency is the most important thing when it comes to building an audience and getting your business moving. Fact of the matter is sometimes things don't happen the way we all want them to happen, regardless of all the contingency plans that are in place. And that consistency may win, right? Amazon, for example, for a while we were all happy that we could just say, Hey, I don't like this, I want to return it. And Amazon was like, Don't even tell us why, boo-boo. We are just gonna go ahead and send you a refund. We got you, and you can go ahead and ship that item back to us. Yay! And then became actually it's costing us too much money to get that item, so just keep it and we'll just send you your money because that is way cheaper than trying to get that item back. Uh, and then it became so you want to send this item back? Okay, um, sure, but why? We would just like to know. And if you want to send it back, by the way, you can send it back in this one method, or choose any of these other methods that will cost you at least seven dollars to send it back.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

And you're like, wait, but the item only costs me six bucks. What? I know that it's dead.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

So um companies are allowed to change things, you are allowed to change things, and yes, consistency is great, but consistency 100% of the time, I just don't know that that's possible. And I had to pause and be like, I don't know if that's possible because I'm thinking it back to our doctor scenario and a surgeon, and I'm thinking, do you really want to go to the surgeon who's got like a 95% batting average? You you if you had to choose between the 95% batting average guy and the 100% batting average guy, you're gonna be like, I'm going to the 100% surgeon. Hello. I don't want to be his first mistake, but honestly, things happen and we just don't know when they're gonna happen. And so, anyway, I went over and for got myself, I almost said force, but I didn't force myself. I got myself to finish this and I felt really good about it. And that reminded me why I do it because I'm not making any money off of it. Um, but I do it for multiple reasons, which I'm not gonna get into right now. And so this all comes back to our initial question is this whole solopreneur, entrepreneur thing a young person's game? Well, sometimes it feels like it. On the one hand, you have young people online doing these interviews on various podcasts, also hosted by young people online. Um, whether it's uh the call me daddy lady or uh diary of a CEO, and the list goes on and on and on, right? Where people are being interviewed. I mean, I guess you can talk Joe Rogan, and before him was Howard Stern, though I think Howard Stern mostly interviewed celebrities. Okay, I don't I don't know. I don't know, but my point being, you got a lot of people out there who are sharing their story, and I personally am starting to feel like everyone else is getting younger and younger, and they're all making millions. So they say. There's a lot that they're not telling you, like about uh how much they're paying in taxes, if they're paying their taxes, um whether or not they're using underpaid labor in order to achieve their goals. There's this one lady who I cannot stand. I'm not gonna drop her name because I'm not here to bash other people right now. But uh I was just infuriated seeing her go on to various podcasts that I enjoyed where she's telling people how you can make lots of money instantly. And I found myself going, there's so much she's leaving out. You know, start your own laundromat. Okay, but where are you getting the capital to rent the space for the laundromat? Where are you getting the capital for the machines? And you're not talking about the fact that if you know nothing about maintaining those machines, yeah, people are putting in quarters all the time. Lots of communities need laundromats, but you've got to be there to respond to inquiries from people. If people have issues, you've got to be the one who fixes things. If somebody comes in drunk and starts banging up your machines, you're the one who's gotta deal with it, or you have to pay for someone else to deal with it. So you're not really talking about all these logistics. Uh, another thing she had was buy a piece of land. Yes, there you go. Buy a piece of land and then um put it up on various sites, letting people know that they can pitch a tent on that land. And then once you get the money coming in from that, then you can take that money and maybe put up a few glamping stations. And then once you get money from that, then you can also get some goats on the land so that people can have like an extra add-on experience. And so now you have um land and a goat experience. I think there was something about this guy who um had his farm next door. He would like message her if it looked like something was unsavory happening over there, but basically she didn't need to be around. And I'm thinking, yeah, homeboy ain't doing that for free. He's gotta be paid something, and you also have to have a permit for those goats. The goats aren't out there taking care of themselves. Who's taking care of these goats? So it was just a lot of advice, which is great ideas, but it wasn't really grounded in reality. She wasn't given a full story. Hmm, can you see I'm still better? She's still out there causing havoc. But I started my first business, boo, I think when I was 18, I did not um legally register my first business until I was 24. And I'm no longer 18 or 24, but I look good for my eyes thrown off. Mm-hmm. But I've had businesses, businesses, plural, now for a long time. And when I was younger, I could stay up late, sewing to the wee hours, trying to get this project done. I could go out, do that show late at night, come home at one in the morning and be like, you know what? I want to go get something to eat. Um, or not even make it home right away, but grab something to eat on my way home. Uh, I remember my boyfriend and I at the time being like, yeah, that was a cool show. Let's go get burritos. It's one in the morning, we gotta get burritos. Um, and then there is also that added responsibility of paying performers and cleaning up from the venue and then settling up with the venue if need be, making sure everything is all set, schlepping around a whole bunch of props and costumes, and then trying to figure out oh gosh, I want to go get pancakes. Everyone else is going out to get pancakes, but I got all this stuff. And I've got more responsibilities now that I've been in the game longer. But even though at times it feels like, man, is this a young person's game? Like, what am I doing wrong? I also have to remind myself that yes, as a young person, this could all seem really um exciting and invincible at times, right? Like you just have to just keep pushing through. But this is get real right, y'all. And so we're about to get real right. Which is regardless of age, when you are running a business, even if that business is just being the best parent you can be, or being the best employee you can be, it's not going to be foolproof. It's not going to be perfect every single day. This is why businesses have uh standard operating procedures. This is why you have quality assurance. And when you are a solopreneur, so much is dependent upon you. And that's why it's even more important to have various measures in place, that pre-planning we talked about, so that when things are looking like that's gonna be a day off or a rainy day or a not good day to podcast or whatever, um, there's still some backup. With all that being said, there is as you become a little older, you also have to allow for yourself to not get into the comparison trap. So I've um I one of the things that I've been working on is um improving my skills in a certain area, and so I've been using Gemini in terms of not planning how to improve my skills, but when I find little moments of setback, like, oh gosh, that's I mean, it would seem to me that two hours of working on that skill wouldn't be leading to this kind of results. And you know, these AI things, maybe you don't know. But one of my complaints about AI is when I get these responses, like, well, it seems like you I and I don't turn on the voice. I I came on once by mistake on my phone, and I was like, Oh, it talks! No, quiet. That's that's me. I don't want it to I don't want to talk to me, I don't want to try to use cool slang. This is a whole other episode, you guys. Um, but anyway, so Gemini gave me this, you know, give me feedback about well, you can't compare yourself to um a 20-year-old blah blah person doing the same thing, and it's going to that's that's a lot of work that you've been doing. I'm like, ah, whatever, Gemini. Maybe I don't know. I don't know. You don't know me. You don't, why are you telling me this? Okay. So, with that being said, um, when you are a solopreneur, and if you are an entrepreneur, if you're doing more than one thing, and I I do want to like preface this by saying it's not just that you're running your business, maybe you are running your business, but also trying to maintain a healthy, happy, loving relationship with someone in your life, then yeah, it can feel really frustrating when one thing is slipping or multiple things are slipping. You're like, oh my gosh, come on. And if I had known some X number of years ago, more than a decade ago, we'll say more than a decade ago, if I had known more than a decade ago that um I would still be trying so hard and still be working to deliver on these promises. Man, I'm I probably would have taken a little pause and been like, do I really want to go out on my own? I don't know. Because the young person's game makes it all look like you are going to reach the end of the road, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and everything will just be finished, resolved at some point. At some point, you're gonna be like, yay, I got Jeff Bezos' money, and here I'm gonna go and hang out at a party, and everything else is gonna work without me. But here's the thing: even Jeff Bezos has to be involved in his business at some point. Otherwise, the business fails, right? Um, he's still gotta take some calls, do some meetings, make sure that things are still moving along. And if you hate Jeff Bezos, I'm not mad at you. I'm just using this as an example. Same way if you hate your doctor, I'm not mad at you. I'm just using that as an example. Don't hate your doctor. Come on now. Doctor just doing what doctor's gotta do. So I may not have the same view, the same lenses to see everything as doable in my business in terms of just push a little harder, stay up a little longer, work a little more. And that's probably very realistic. It's not just okay, that's probably very realistic. If you happen to be someone who is in your 20s, starting your first business, and you're like, oh my goodness, I'm so excited! Yay! Then hey, I am excited for you. And just ask yourself, where do you want this business to be in five years, in 10 years? What is your limit? Is there a point where you will say, I know at this point in my life, I know I want to have kids, or I know I want to be married, or I know I want to be living in a different country, or I know I want to have X number of people working for me. If those things don't happen at that deadline, do you pull the plug on your business? Do you keep pushing along, chugging along like the little engine that could? Because a lot of these influencers make it seem like the little engine that could, you're just gonna keep chug, chug, chugging up the hill, and then eventually you're gonna get over the hump and you're gonna coast. But we don't really know what happens to that engine. Like, does he just make it to the station and then he gets on his merry way until he gets to another hill? I mean, he is a train, and in theory, he's got a schedule to keep, so he's gonna keep going up and down hills. With that being said, does he retire after he makes it to the station? Is he just like, hmm, well, put me out of service. My work here is done. And so I've achieved a lot in my long business adventures. There's so much more that I would like to do. Um, but I know that I'm not gonna be retiring this train. I also know that I am not going to risk blowing out my okay, I don't know anything about trains. Uh risk ruining my gears by pushing up the hill too much. So I'm gonna think I can, I think I can to get up the hill, and then hopefully I'll get up the hill. Well, I guess you don't want to put it on hope, right? But if I keep sliding back, gonna keep trying. I'm gonna be the little old engine that could. Okay, so no. Having your own business, starting your business is not a young person's game, but you have to be realistic about it and know that all this talk about just knowing your Y and pushing harder and being hungry ain't the full story. It ain't y'all. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Trampolines are fun, but be careful on them, by the way. All right. I hope you found this helpful. I know this was not a purely planned point point point episode, but this girl also said, I have a commitment to you. I do, I do, viewer. I gotta give you something or listener. And so hope this was somewhat helpful. Until next time. Peace. Thanks for listening. If you think this podcast would help a friend, then please feel free to share it with them. If you want to check out some more Little Ray, or just see me hang out with cute dogs, then feel free to visit me over on YouTube, get Little Ray 4273.