The thing no one tells you about going solo

This Week's Gut Punch

Ever notice how "freedom" looks a lot like seventeen browser tabs, three half-finished Notion docs, and cold coffee you forgot you made?

Going solo was supposed to mean leverage. Instead, you're both the janitor and the CEOโ€”and frankly, both are doing a crap job.

Time to fix that.

What's Inside:

  • One good idea to build your empire

  • One tool to save your sanity

  • One story to make you laugh (while questioning your life choices)

๐Ÿ”— Stuff Worth Your Time

๐Ÿ›  Tool: TidyCal โ€” Dead-simple calendar booking that doesn't try to upsell you into a CRM cult.

๐Ÿง  Quick Hit: Your productivity system is probably killing your business. Colour-coding your calendar and organising your to-do list feels productive, but it's just procrastination with better graphics. Real leverage comes from systems that work without you.

๐Ÿ’ก Reality Check: That "urgent" email you're about to write? You've written it 47 times before. Time to turn it into a template, not a daily creative writing exercise.

๐Ÿ’ธ Quick Word from the Sponsors

This week's sponsor is... you.

That's right. No ads. No affiliate spam. Just me, a keyboard, and a desperate need to see fewer smart people waste their brains on admin hell.

[Want to sponsor? Hit reply.]

๐Ÿ““ Strategy Drop: The Hidden Cost of "Just Doing It Myself"

Here's the lie: "It's faster if I do it."

Here's the truth: You're bleeding time on $10 tasks while your $200/hour brain watches.

Crimes You're Probably Committing:

  • Rewriting the same email 10 times a week

  • Manually sending invoices like it's 2003

  • Forgetting leads because CRMs feel like digital prison

These aren't badges of honour. They're digital self-harm.

The Cure (Takes 10 Minutes):

  1. Pick ONE task you do 5+ times weekly

  2. Screen record yourself doing it once

  3. Dump that video in a doc called "crap I Shouldn't Be Doing"

  4. Ask ChatGPT: "Can this be automated?"

(Or send it to meโ€”I like puzzles.)

Automation isn't about replacing yourself. It's about firing the parts of you that suck at consistency.

๐ŸŽฏ One-Minute Win

Next time you catch yourself doing the same admin task for the third time this week, stop.

Open your phone. Record a voice memo explaining what you're doing and why it's annoying you.

Send that to yourself with the subject: "Future Me Will Thank Me."

Do this enough times and you'll start seeing patterns. Patterns become systems. Systems become freedom.

Lone Wolf Law: "If you're too busy to automate, you're too busy to scale."

๐Ÿ‘‹ That's It For This Week

Liked this? Forward it to one mate stuck in wage-cage hell.

Need help building your Empire of One? Book a strategy call.

Reply and tell me what you're working onโ€”I might roast it in a future issue.

How did you like today's newsletter?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Unsubscribe if this isn't your jam. Life's too short for newsletters that don't deliver.