From Coffee to Cash: Sue's Secrets for Solopreneurs

I got like a bonus life because when I recovered, I felt it was a bonus life for me.

You pay attention, and when you pay attention, when you take action, you see the results.

You see the transformation.

If you lose money, you can make money again.

But if you lose time, you cannot recreate time.

Mmm, that's good.

Welcome to Digital Coffee and Marketing Brew.

In this episode, we sit down with Sue Patz, who shares her honest journey as a sole entrepreneur and practical strategies for overcoming the obstacles of building an online business alone.

If you're seeking real advice and proven methods to accelerate your growth, you won't want to miss this conversation.

Let's get started.

Thank you.

I really appreciate questions.

All my guest is, are you a coffee or tea drinker?

Actually, I never drank tea before I got married and my husband is tea drinker, but now he has become coffee monster.

So basically whatever is at home, I drink it.

So I think right now I can just say coffee drinker.

But I prefer herbal tea.

That is even better for you in general, right?

Yeah.

I mean, coffee black is usually pretty good too, as long as you don't do too much.

It's always about the not do too, the too much thing.

Oh, yeah.

Excess of anything is poison.

Yeah.

So you're just like anything for tea if it's herbal?

For the most part.

Yeah.

All right.

And I gave a brief summary of your expertise.

Can you give listeners a little bit more about what you do?

I had many businesses.

Initially I was in corporate America and I was really happy.

We were doing double income, no kids.

And the moment I got my first kid, it was very hard to leave my kid to the daycare and go to work.

So I was looking for opportunities all the time.

So it was not that that time prominent to work from home, even in computer industry.

So I had to start businesses and that as a side hustle.

So I had a computer consulting firm.

I also had a placement firm.

I was also into network marketing.

I did various businesses.

But then few years back I was bedridden and I got like a bonus life because when I recovered, I felt it was a bonus life for me.

And I just changed my direction in my life.

I just wanted to help everything I can help for solopreneurs to succeed.

So.

So I started blogging because I thought I can give free resources to solopreneurs.

My blogs got lots of traction.

People started saying, we love your blogs.

We don't have time to read the blogs.

Why don't you start podcast and YouTube channel?

So I started podcasting.

I started YouTube channel.

And I started everything what solopreneurs wanted.

So now my offers are based on digital products, but basically to save solopreneurs their time.

Because I saw solopreneurs spending 6 months in creating lead magnet.

I saw solopreneur spending 1 1/2 years in creating webinar launch.

I saw solopreneur Spending 3 years in creating 1e course.

So now my offers are like that.

So that you can get it done on fast track, so that you can start generating revenue really, really fast.

So.

So my offers are everything the way solopreneurs can save their time and start creating revenue as early as possible.

Because when I joined the digital business, I was told that you can see real money only in the third year.

But now I have testimonials and case studies where solopreneurs can see real money in their first week of business.

So anything for solopreneurs, especially in the digital field.

And our main core offer is the business in a box, where it is a group of 16e courses with full marketing material, sales pages, email campaigns and funnels and everything.

And that we give it on a silver platter, 90% off with one month help so that we just make sure that solopreneurs are making money.

All right, so can you walk us through the pivotal moments that shaped your path to becoming a digital marketing powerhouse for solo entrepreneurs?

Yeah.

So I was doing lots of things for solopreneurs and my idea was to give them free resources so that they will have a head start.

And they.

Because solopreneur, I haven't seen a single solopreneur who starts a business with thousands of dollars sitting in the bank ready to be invested in a side hustle.

So I thought I will provide them free resources so that they will have a head start and they can help themselves in growing their business.

But the more and more I was providing free resources, it was like solopreneurs were putting all those resources on shelf and they were not taking any action.

Because when you pay anything, when you pay resources, when you pay money, when you pay something, you pay attention.

And when you pay attention, when you take action, you see the results, you see the transformation.

Then I started creating the offers.

And so now I talked about my business in a box offer.

When I give free, people really don't take action people.

So I started creating, but my now every offer is also designed for soloprene so that they can overcome their challenges.

So because I saw people struggling in creating lead magnet, six months, and six months is a long duration Just for creating lead magnet.

So then I have a lead magnet.

I can create your lead magnet in six hours so that you can save your six months of time.

Because you know you, if you lose money, you can make money again.

But if you lose time, you cannot recreate time.

The time is flying so fast.

And many solopreneurs quit their business before launching their first product.

Many entrepreneurs don't see second year in their business.

Those who see second year, many of them don't see fifth year in the business.

So that was my pivotal change that when my focus was to just give everything free, free, free.

So now also means my offers are paid offers but they are deeply discounted.

But they are again for solopreneur success so that they can save time and then they can start creating revenue on fast track.

Got you.

So what's a creative email strategy you use to help sole entrepreneurs stand out in a crowded inbox?

And what were the results?

Okay, email marketing, many people say, you know, I don't even open all the email, so why should I get into email marketing.

But you know email marketing, it is the highest ROI generating platform.

And initially I didn't share my offers because I had that dogma and some, some kind of fear of selling your offers through email.

Because digital marketing was new for me and I was just adding value.

I was nurturing my audience and still people were unsubscribing and I couldn't understand why are you unsubscribing?

Because I'm not even selling anything.

But then I realized it is just a numbers game and if someone is not ready to have their solo email for sales, I would recommend start putting your offers into PS section and if you are not ready with your offers, you can share the offers.

You can become affiliate of someone and someone sometimes actually the resource you are using you are convinced about.

You can mention that into PS and just see how your subscribers are responding.

And I started getting really great results with that.

I couldn't believe it because I think I was respecting my subscribers a lot.

So when I started sharing my offers in the PS section it was like most of the time in affiliate marketing I was on the leaderboard just by sharing into PS section because I was respecting my subscribers.

I really write very clear subject line, it is not vague so that if they don't want to open, they shouldn't open.

It's perfectly.

And so you, if someone is really scared to do email marketing, just start putting into PS section, see how your subscribers work and then later on you can make a Solo email.

But make sure that not your every email is for sales related.

And when someone opts in into your subscribers list, set clear expectation what emails you will be sending them, what they should expect and set very clear expectation so that they are not surprised and be consistent.

Whatever.

Consistency is different for everyone.

Some people like to send multiple emails per day, some, some are happy one per week, some are happy one per month.

Whatever frequency you want to have, you can surely keep that frequency.

So that it's not like that someone opted into your subscribers list and then suddenly you send email after three months they say who, who, who is she?

Why is she sending me an email?

So don't surprise them.

And I have many, many courses on email marketing so I, I won't go into details of that.

But if someone new solopreneur wants to get started with email marketing, I think this is a great strategy and this is how I got started and now I see the great results.

And what do you see digital marketing heading in the next few years for small business owners and how can they prepare for those shifts?

Yeah, because when I got started into digital business, AI was not prominent and then AI came.

So my initial digital products, there wasn't any module, E course or anything related to AI.

But when AI came, I made sure that I added module related to AI and I gave free access to everyone who bought my previous courses.

So I think the next trend is using AI and AI Also.

Some people are totally against it, some people are for it, some people are scared, they think oh AI will take my job and all.

You know, AI is going to be there anyway, so you better adapt it.

And AI is a tool.

You cannot replace yourself with AI.

AI is a tool.

Finally, it is your business, it is your strategy.

Use AI for your various needs.

For example, if you have blank screen syndrome and all, you can use AI for creating outline and various things.

But don't do just copy and paste AI read it, edit it, put your brain, put your voice, put your passion into it.

So AI is a tool, just take help.

But finally it is your business, your voice.

So just make sure that your strategy is there in whatever material you are creating with AI.

Just don't do copy and paste, read it, read it, edit it and then you put it wherever you want to put it.

I have to be a devil's advocate because sometimes it's just easier to do it because we got 50 other things to do.

So how do you keep track of that?

Because a lot of times it's like, okay, I just want to get this done as quickly as possible because it may not be on the top of my list of like editing it and going through it again.

So how do you keep track of all that stuff and make sure that you're putting your voice into the AI at the same time?

First of all, you can do custom GPT.

So if you create a custom GPT, your brand voice is there.

So that if you are using that prompt, don't use generic prompt and you know means basically it is AI is like again, it is like computer, it is garbage in, garbage out.

So if you put generic in, generic out, then your brand voice won't be there.

So create custom prompts and if you really don't have time on daily basis, use the custom prompts and then just make sure.

Also some AI models are really great.

I can vouch for one.

Really.

I love that there are many models and I have paid for many.

But I would just make sure that the stuff which goes on your website, which is going to live there with you lifelong, just make sure that stuff is at least quality stuff.

And for social media, if you're just sharing a social media post and if you want some kind of input and captions and hashtag and all, then you really don't need to put too much of time and effort and all, then you can use that.

So any social media, yeah, you put it there and it is gone.

I don't know.

Depending on the platform, some platform it is gone in minutes, some platform it is gone in hours.

Some platform it is gone in days.

Some platform it is gone in months, some.

So depending on that you can decide and you can choose and depending on you do the edit or non editing your stuff.

Solopreneurs are listening to this and they're just stuck on their online presence.

They just don't know what to do.

What is one quick actionable step they can take today to see immediate improvements?

Social media first, if you are stuck over there, find where your ideal customers are sitting, okay?

Because you know, you talk to different person, everyone will say I know some people they are making millions using Instagram.

There are some people they will vouch only for LinkedIn.

Some people say Facebook is the best.

So I cannot say one is better than other.

It just see where is your ideal customer lying and then you can just set that as a main platform and you can create the content for that particular main platform and then you can repurpose it on other platform so that you don't have to keep on spending too much time in creating content for Every platform specific and social media another thing.

Social media generally takes time to pick up the results you don't see instantaneously means if someone is having like thousands or millions of people follower, they don't come overnight.

So you should have a strategy.

I'm not putting down social media.

You should have social media strategy too.

But if your goal is to make instant money, you want immediate cash injection, then you should have other strategies which you can use and you can flourish your business.

For example, in my community I always tell collaboration is a great strategy.

If you don't have your audience, you can collaborate with someone, you can borrow other people's audiences and you can create very I have a free course also called 27 Ways to Collaborate.

So depending on at what stage you are so I'm so don't.

I'm not saying stop social media but I'm just saying focus on one platform where your ideal customer is.

You can create content for that then you can repurpose on the same content on various platforms forms and have other strategies ready which can create revenue for you on consistent and regular basis.

Because social media means it's not possible to do zero to million.

Even your real can go viral but still it's not going to give you million followers in one night.

It is not possible.

And I mean would it help them just to go be guests on podcasts to help like maybe find an audience and build something?

If we're talking about social media, Kstown.

Podcast is a really, really great strategy and the kind of people I meet in during my podcasting journey, very, very high quality, very, very high quality people.

And I know actually my mentor his first digital product was YouTube related how to have YouTube videos and he is focused totally on podcasts because his offers are really high ticket, high class offers and he says that he gets his ideal customers from podcast.

He's hardly on YouTube though.

He became millionaire because of YouTube.

He's hardly on YouTube.

So I'm not putting YouTube down because when I publish actually my team publishes podcast.

We publish even on YouTube and all podcasting channels.

So I'm just telling in general podcasting is a really great strategy and I think the highest quality people I met only through my podcasting journey.

What do you see from New Sol Preneurs?

What tools should they figure out to use first?

Should they understand AI pretty quickly?

Should they understand the basics of marketing, digital marketing?

What where should they start before they start this journey of figuring out where to find an audience?

I have a free course, actually I created a free course where they can create a free course and they can even host the free course and then they can even market and all, everything.

It is a four module course.

So how you can create course for free, how you can host it for free, how you can market it for free.

Because most solopreneurs, they don't have a lot of money sitting in the bank.

So once they have this free courses done and once they have revenue coming in on consistent basis, then they can upgrade their business and then they can follow their dream and they can follow their other passions and all.

And I interviewed many entrepreneurs on my podcast and I asked them if they would like to change one thing in their business, what would be the one thing they would like to change?

And almost everyone answered that they would start networking well in advance, not when their offers are ready.

Because if they start networking well in advance, then when their offers are ready, their audience also will be ready.

So digital business, you don't have to go everything linear, everything actually goes parallel.

And when you are creating your offers, remember your audience, so do networking.

Remember collaborations, remember all the strategies.

And that's why a solopreneur on an average wears like 27 hats.

It's really, really hard.

It is not easy to have a solopreneur's life.

It is not at all easy.

So first of all, just focus on the things which are really high value.

Means if you come to your home office and if you start doing things like admin things or checking or bookkeeping and all, so you are giving yourself that much of pay.

But instead of that, if you go to your home office and if you wear CEO hat, CFO hat, so basically you are giving that kind of pay raise.

So delegate the things.

Now, AI is good because you can delegate the mundane mechanical things to AI.

So for example, you can create the automation on email.

You may forget to send email, but AI won't.

If you don't have any technical glitch, AI will send the email.

And so you can delegate all these mundane, mechanical, automated things to AI.

And if everything you cannot delegate to AI, hire virtual assistant.

It's okay.

It's okay means I know you may not have that much of money lying around, but you know you can start actually on small scale.

You don't need to hire virtual assistant full time.

You can start on small scale and you can create a workflow.

I have a workflow, I create even video, a checklist for any particular task.

Once you have that workflow and checklist and video everything ready, you can easily delegate that task to Virtual assistant.

If you are not ready for virtual assistant, you can have a freelancers.

But my experience with freelancers means basically I had to train them and then it was a lot of time waster.

So virtual assistants really work better for me.

So delegate the tasks, you free yourself some time, avoid burnout because burnout is more than real for solopreneurs.

So these are the strategies I would tell for new solopreneur that you are your own boss.

Treat yourself like a boss.

Don't treat yourself like admin or graphic designer or those kind of things.

Those kind of things you can surely outsource.

No, right?

And people listening to this podcast, they're wondering where can they find you online to learn more.

Oh yeah, actually I have Evergreens training and you can go to newbeginning.comwebinar and where you will find lots of free resources.

Because I really like to give lots of free resources.

There is a one menu bar just dedicated for freebies and I have various kinds of freebies, AI freebies and sales page, lots of freebies.

So you can get resources over there.

Yeah.

And if you're looking for business in the box, like if you are looking for ready made digital products so that you can save your time, it can be anything.

If you're starting a new business or you are diversifying or you are adding extra stream of income, in every case it works.

So all those things are actually there on my website and I am on LinkedIn also.

But LinkedIn I got verified so I had to write my real name.

My nickname is Soup Ads and my real name is really long.

So LinkedIn you may not really find me.

If you go and look for Soup Ads, you may not find me.

So it is better to look for me at New Beginning and anywhere actually, even on YouTube I have three channels.

Anything related to New Beginning, you can find me on YouTube and you can of course send my New Beginning inspiration for you podcast.

So this places anything related to New Beginning you should be able to find me.

All right.

Any final thoughts for listeners?

I just wanted to say that, you know you are actually listening to this podcast so you are really blessed because he is very, very dedicated.

You know, if someone wants to be a guest on somebody's podcast, many people, their calendars are full and appointments are not available.

But I'm so blessed, actually it's our digital coffee.

Yeah.

Marketing brew.

He has a wide opening and he's giving priority to his audiences and guests and he's so flexible.

You are really blessed to be being in audience okay, so just make sure listen to all his podcasts, all his sessions, because I'm pretty sure he must be delivering you all the quality material.

And I'm really thankful, really thankful to be a guest on your podcast.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for the compliment and I do appreciate you being on my podcast and sharing your knowledge on solopreneurs and how to help them as well.

Thank you.

And thank you for listening.

As always.

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All right, guys, stay safe.

If you're a solo entrepreneur and you're trying to figure out, listen to Sue's advice.

She's got some great advice there.

And see you next week.

Later.