Psssst...Full Stack Solo Self-Paced goes away tonight, May 11th at 11:59pm EST. This is your last and final call to grab it before it's gone...forever.
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Hey Reader,
"I went solo for the freedom."
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that line (or said it myself), I'd have enough to cover a round of seltzer for my entire newsletter list.
And sure, freedom is part of the equation. Working in your pajamas (I'm currently not wearing pants, so that tracks). Setting your hours. Choosing your clients.
But let's be real: that's only half the story.
Because if freedom were the only goal, we'd all be chasing remote jobs with cushy benefits, zero meetings, and solid paychecks.
Instead, we chose this rollercoaster. This constant up-and-down, feast-or-famine ride that makes our hearts race and our bank accounts fluctuate.
Why?
I have a theory, and it might ruffle some feathers:
We have battle energy. And we need somewhere to put it.
"I hate you, I love you, I hate that I love you."
(Apologies for getting that song stuck in your head, but it fits too well.)
"I've never felt so alive."
That's how I felt after my first five-figure month as a solo.
Not "I've never felt so free."
Not "I love having no boss."
But alive. As in, heart-pounding, palms-sweating, I-can't-believe-I-pulled-this-off ALIVE.
Solopreneurship isn't just a career choice. It's an adrenaline sport.
We crave the highs of winning a client, launching a product, hitting a revenue goal. We even weirdly enjoy (in retrospect) the lows of failed launches, ghosted discovery calls, and months where we question everything.
Which is why I believe, strongly, that if it weren't fun on some level, people wouldn't do it.
There are easier ways to make money. Safer ways to build a career. More predictable ways to plan for retirement.
But none of them scratch that itch.
That deep, primal need to test ourselves, to prove what we're capable of, to battle against the odds and occasionally win.
We don't just want results. We want the story. We want to look back and say, "I was there. I did that. And it meant something."
But here's the uncomfortable truth
Battle energy alone doesn't build a business.
I've watched countless solos with fire in their belly crash and burn because they missed a critical piece:
Just making things doesn't work in and of itself.
You can't just go make things and expect success to follow. You can't just rely on hustle and adrenaline to carry you through.
Don't get me wrong — that energy is essential. But it needs a focus.
You have to be known for an expertise you own.
You have to develop a point of view.
You have to try to answer deep questions that you don't feel have been answered well.
Otherwise, you're just another one of those solos who does the same thing as that other solo who copied that solo who did it first.
And that person? They're forgettable.
How to channel battle energy productively
The solos who make it aren't just the ones with the most fire.
They're the ones who've learned to direct that fire.
Look at what they do differently:
- They pick specific problems to solve, rather than trying to help "everyone with everything"
- They develop frameworks and processes that are uniquely theirs
- They're willing to make claims others aren't making
- They have opinions that sometimes make people uncomfortable
- They document their journey, not just their highlight reel
These people don't just make things. They make specific things that solve specific problems based on their specific expertise.
The difference between a struggling solo and a thriving solo is never about who has more energy — it's about how they focus their energy.
What to do with this realization
The path to finding answers always starts with questions:
- What problem are you UNIQUELY positioned to solve? (Not "what services do you offer")
- What gaps exist in the conversation about that problem?
- What's your take that differs from the conventional wisdom?
Finding these answers is crucial to giving your battle energy somewhere productive to go.
So yes, enjoy the adrenaline ride. Embrace the ups and downs. Feel alive in the battle.
But don't mistake motion for progress.
Channel that fire into something specific.
Because when battle energy meets focused expertise, that's when the real magic happens.
Cheers,
Erica
PS. If you're still trying to figure out how to focus your expertise, grab Full Stack Solo Self-Paced before it disappears forever tonight at midnight.
Nick and I built it specifically to help solos with plenty of battle energy niche on a specific problem, and communicate your POV in a way so hard to ignore, you become a magnet for your ideal high-ticket clients.
​Grab FSS Self-Paced before it disappears...forever​
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New here? I'm Erica.
Your seltzer-loving solopreneur who helps you earn more money with content that moves people to action (but doesn’t feel salesy).
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