How Successful Solopreneurs Think Differently About Growth

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What separates solopreneurs who stay stuck from those who scale into something bigger?

In this episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, Carly Ries and Joe Rando sit down with attorney and business strategist Brandon Williams, whose experience working with major brands like Steve Harvey Global gives him a unique perspective on what it really takes to grow a business from a single idea into a lasting legacy.

Brandon breaks down one of the biggest myths about solopreneurship: that doing it alone means building it alone. He explains why the most successful solopreneurs actively build networks, leverage contractors, and think years ahead, even when they’re just starting out.

Whether you’re still in the idea phase or actively growing your business, this conversation will help you shift from thinking small to building intentionally.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why solopreneurs should think like CEOs, even on day one

• How to scale without hiring employees (using contractors and partnerships)

• The mindset shift that helps solopreneurs overcome imposter syndrome

• How to break big, long-term goals into actionable daily priorities

• The legal structures solopreneurs should set up early (like LLCs and contracts)

• Why sharing your idea accelerates growth instead of risking it

• How to build confidence when entering rooms with more “established” people

• The biggest partnership mistakes solopreneurs make (and how to avoid them)

• Why effort and momentum attract opportunities and support

Key Takeaways

1. Flying solo doesn’t mean building alone
Solopreneurs who scale successfully surround themselves with contractors, mentors, and collaborators.

2. Confidence comes from action, not experience
The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is often the willingness to try.

3. Structure makes your business real
Creating an LLC, separating finances, and putting agreements in place protects your future growth.

4. Focus on where you’re going, not just where you are
Thinking years ahead helps guide better decisions today.

5. Effort attracts momentum
Taking consistent action creates opportunities, connections, and growth.

Episode FAQs

How can solopreneurs scale their business without hiring employees?

Solopreneurs can scale by building a network of contractors, freelancers, and collaborators instead of hiring full-time employees. This allows them to expand their capabilities, take on more clients, and increase revenue while maintaining flexibility and low overhead. Many successful solopreneurs use contractors for marketing, operations, design, and technical work.

What legal structure should a solopreneur set up when starting a business?

Most solopreneurs should create an LLC (Limited Liability Company) early in their business. An LLC separates personal and business assets, protecting the owner from personal liability if legal issues arise. Solopreneurs should also open a separate business bank account and use written agreements with contractors and clients.

How do solopreneurs build confidence when starting or growing a business?

Solopreneurs build confidence through action, not experience alone. Taking small steps, such as networking, talking about their business, working with clients, and executing consistently, helps build belief over time. Even experienced business leaders are constantly learning, and confidence grows by doing, not waiting until everything feels perfect.

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

About Brandon Williams

"Success is really, really hard."

About the Show

The Aspiring Solopreneur helps one-person business owners grow smarter, avoid burnout, and build businesses that support their lives — not consume them. Hosted by Carly Ries and Joe Rando, the show features practical strategies, real conversations, and expert insights for modern solopreneurs.

Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. 

So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, click here to check out LifeStarr Intro! 

Episode Transcript

Carly Ries: What if the only real difference between you and the biggest players in your industry is that they were willing to try? Today, we're talking with attorney Brandon Williams, who's worked with major brands like Steve Harvey Global about what solopreneurs underestimate when building business. We cover why thinking five years ahead changes everything, the confidence shift that helps you walk into any room like you belong, the legal mistake that quietly destroys businesses, and how to turn just an idea into something real. If you've ever doubted yourself, hesitated to share your idea, or wondered how to truly scale, this episode is for you. So let's dive in.

You're listening to the Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for anyone on the solo business journey, whether you're just toying with the idea, taking your first bold step, or have been running your own show for years and want to keep growing, refining, and thriving. I'm Carly Ries, and along with my cohost, Joe Rando, we're your guides through the crazy but awesome world of being a company of one. As part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all things solopreneurship, we help people design businesses that align with their life's ambitions so they can work to live, not live to work. If you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the place for you. But if you want real world insights from industry experts, lessons from the successes and stumbles of fellow solopreneurs, and practical strategies for building and sustaining a business you love, you're in the right spot.

Because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. No matter where you are in your journey, we've got your back. Brandon, welcome to the show. You have such a unique background and I cannot wait to dive into it and kinda share your story with our listeners. But before we do that, we ask all of our solopreneurs one of two icebreaker questions.

So I want to ask you, what do you wish you would have known before becoming a solopreneur?

Brandon Williams: I think before I was just known I need more people. I think being a solopreneur is great, but I think always be thinking about how I can build more, more scale, scale. And don't think that you're limited in your understanding or belief or the ability to handle clients or businesses. I think as long as you are comfortable in your expertise of it, your area of expertise, you'll be fine. But if I really thought about it, I'd be like, man, I just need more people.

Carly Ries: And on that note, more people can be more contractors. We always say flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. So that doesn't mean you need to take on employees by any means. It just means you need to create a network.

Brandon Williams: Absolutely. Right. Yeah.

Carly Ries: Yeah. And build that network. Well, speaking of growing bigger and bigger and bigger, you've worked for brands like Steve Harvey it's like Steve Harvey Global, which, you could say might be a big company. But what did that teach you about scaling the most small business owners, like solopreneurs?

Completely underestimate. What knowledge can you bring from that top dog

Brandon Williams: Yeah. I think that the thing that I learned from there is just like always to be looking outward, right? Like don't ever pay attention to the inward part like where I am today. It's always where are we trying to go, in other words, I don't look at what January whatever the date is today, 2026.

I'm looking at what's at the end of the year, what's next year, what's two years from now, what's five years from now. Never focus on just what is today. And so I think in terms of like advising people, suggesting things to people, always be looking beyond where you are today because I think the today portion can be limiting but if you're thinking about where do I wanna be next year, where do I wanna be in two years or where do I wanna be in five years, it gets you out of the today where I've gotta respond to emails and I've gotta get back to this person or get back to this sales force. Going a year from now gets you away from this limiting idea and so I always learn to think back, okay, well what brands are we trying to get connected to? What businesses are we trying to do business with?

What networks do we want to speak with? What television station do we wanna get a business relationship with? And that might not be happening today, but I was always thinking about where could we get.

Carly Ries: So for a solopreneur that's like that quote, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? So let's say the year, five year out is the elephant. Do you have that vision but then also kind of break it down into like we do like a ninety day plan where

Brandon Williams: Yeah.

Carly Ries: It's far enough in advance where we can plan but like where we can pivot. How do you do that?

Brandon Williams: So the way that I break that down is a couple of ways. So at the beginning of the year, I do a thing called the best year yet. And it's like this forecast for what I wanna see for the year. I look back at the past twelve months and I look at what are things I want to accomplish this year.

So that's your big elephant, right? And then day to day, I have a to do list, Like I am looking at things, here are the seven things that I absolutely have to get done today. And even at that list I look at well what of those seven, what's the real important Like I gotta get something done on Tuesday. What are the one or two things that I have to do today and then focus on those.

So I look at it from a year out, I look at it from a week out and then I look at it from today what do I have to do? So if I looked at my to do list today for instance Carly, I've got six things on there. But of those six I really gotta do two or three, right? that's the ones that are vitally important. So if those other three kinda carry it over, it'd be okay.

And the final piece of that is I don't really get frustrated so much if I don't get to all of them. There could be things that happen. Life happens, right? You get a phone call from your spouse or your kid gets sick at school or you gotta fly somewhere to go meet a client you didn't know about or something unexpected happens. So I don't look at it like as punishment if I don't get to something, I just use it as a guide, hopeful that it directs my day so it does keep me from becoming distracted,

If I'm at 04:00 and I've gotten through nothing that I was planning to do today, okay, why is that, right? Did I make any decisions up until 4PM that impacted that and I start to ask myself why, but I don't chastise myself when it's 7PM and I'm having dinner with my kids and like, Oh my God, I should have done this and I didn't do this. I don't make it to be a frustrating thing. I view them as like guides of life on a daily basis to keep me going towards that north star of getting towards my best year yet.

Joe Rando: I just wanna jump in and say I love that because so many people use to do lists as a source of punishment. And they'll say, well, I've got, 27 things to do, so let me make that to do list. And then they get through three of them, and they feel terrible because there's still 24 that they didn't do. And it's like, you have to make it your friend.

That's really a good approach. And, limiting the day and then kind of identify things you really gotta get done, and then kind of say, okay, I'm gonna give myself some grace if I don't get through them all.

Brandon Williams: Absolutely.

Carly Ries: Joe, I'm so glad you said that, because I feel like a lot of people, their self esteem plummets. If they feel like they're constantly not meeting their goals, not meeting their tasks, not finishing their to do list. And that actually pivots to something else I wanted to talk to you about, is solopreneurs do struggle with confidence. And if they wanna be networking, let's say partnering with a TV station, like you were saying, or going into kind of these intimidating spaces, Based on your experience in these high level environments, what kind of mindset shift helps solopreneurs see themselves as the real deal rather than that low self esteem that so many of them have?

Brandon Williams: So I was having a conversation with someone over the weekend, Carly, to this very point. what I would say to people and some people think this is kind of an off statement but everyone is trying to figure it out, right? No matter what it sounds like or you hear somebody say about AI or you hear Elon Musk say there'll be no jobs in like five years or you hear everyone is trying to figure it out, right? So I think the confidence comes from what you know, from what your experience is. It doesn't matter if you're a one person shot or a million person shot.

Take your knowledge base, walk in the room and understand that no matter how well they're dressed, no matter how many years they say they've been doing it, they're all trying to figure it out, right? they're all trying to come up with the answers and the right answers, Like you can come up with an answer but if it's not the right one who cares? So I walk in rooms, it doesn't matter that somebody says, oh, I'm the president of ABC, I'm the president of Fox. What I have come to find is it's all the same.

They're trying things, Some things work, some things don't. They believe that some things will work. They're confident in what they say. But truly when it doesn't work, all they say is, well, I tried. Right?

And that I think the difference is is for the people that kind of pull themselves out of it because of a confidence thing. The difference between the winners and the losers that somebody tried and somebody didn't, right? They had the confidence to try, make the effort, go figure it out. And that's the big difference. So what I would tell everybody that's listening, go and do it,

Understand that the person no matter how good they look or the car that they drive or the trips they say that they're on, They are just trying to figure it out just like you. The only difference is they have the willingness to try day after day, day after day. And even when they get it wrong, they don't let that be the stopping point, They just go try and find something else. And so I think that's a big difference.

Joe Rando: I'd like to toss in a little perspective on that because I really like that. I think it's a 100% true 80% of the time. But there are, and this has been my experience in working for companies when I was younger and being in my own business. I mean, I've been doing that for the last thirty five years in my own, starting my own businesses. There are people that aren't trying anymore.

You will walk in a room sometimes with somebody that isn't trying and it can be frustrating because they're not gonna resonate. Whatever you're telling them doesn't matter because they're not trying. But it's also sometimes a way to say, hey, you know, we have an opportunity here to do what they're not doing. My last startup, we ended up, our biggest competitor was a billion dollar a year in revenue company, and we were a bootstrap startup. And we ended up dominating the space, niche that we attacked, because they didn't, they'd given up, they were doing it, they were selling into it, but they weren't trying.

And we hit it hard, and I think it's important to keep that perspective, because that sometimes can be a very frustrating way when you're selling, but a really great thing when you're competing.

Brandon Williams: Yeah. And I think that's a great point, Joe. I think, look, if don't make an assumption that just because they're the big show in town that there isn't a place for you. As you just mentioned, you see companies all the time. You're like, they clearly are missing something. Like there's this thing that they could be doing and they're not because they're doing whatever they're doing or they're big and they've got all this bureaucracy and red tape and you're like, man, we could really like build off of something. And so don't make the assumption that just because there's a huge market maker in the space that there isn't room for your startup or your single business. Like you have just as much ability, you have just as much opportunity. And I would say from a historical standpoint, it's probably the best time to do it.

You have so many resources. You have so many opportunities too, as Carly, you mentioned earlier about contracting. I mean, there are sites everywhere, where you can just find somebody that can do this particular role, find somebody that can do this and you can just build them at whatever rate that they agree to. You get the business, you use them to kinda help you do something. But like that didn't exist thirty years ago or it didn't exist in such an easy fashion, let me put it that way. You had to really make an effort to go find it.

But if I need a contractor for this or I need to do this, I go to a site, I look and see what their stats are or what people have come back and said this is what type of person this is or the type of work they do. I just think it's the best time to compete, right? I really do in terms of what the digital factor gives us and the ability to like just get information at you know, warp speed. And to Joe's point, I don't know that everybody's trying. There are a lot of people that are putting stuff in chat GPT but you still gotta go do it,

And they think that that's the answer but they're leaving something on the table too from just an experiential standpoint. So I think not making an assumption about what that company does or can do or what you can do and provide, I think that's another thing that that will make a differentiator as well.

Carly Ries: Well, going back on the topic of, everybody's just trying to figure it out. What do you say to people that have a strong idea but they aren't sure really how to turn it into a real business? Like what are those first strategic questions they should be asking themselves to make it a reality?

Brandon Williams: So I think Carly that, you know, when I look at or I come and get people that are coming to me for, assistance on something, I'll use an example. I had a client that was getting into the ice cream business about ten years ago and the CEO walks in, he's like, look, I know this isn't what your normal clients look like and I've gotten this idea, and this is what I wanna do. And he had this notebook, right? like all of his documents and he had done all this stuff and I said, You're more than 95% there because most people walk in they don't have one piece of paper. I was like, You've done some of the work.

What I try to tell people is start making some effort, Like if you come into my office and say I just have an idea. Okay, well have you written anything down on paper, Do you have an idea of what I would say is a business plan? Even if that business plan is one page,

Here's what I wanna do. It's all about energy and effort in my mind, Like if you have done nothing up until a point and just have an idea, that's all you've got is an idea. But what I know is how people come along is like when you show energy and you show effort in something, it attracts people. I know that everybody on this has heard about the law of attraction, but I do believe energy, effort, demonstration of something more than just I have a great idea.

Did you write it down? Hey, I've talked to some people in the industry. I've talked to these three people. They said, you know what, if you built this, this could work. Or I've already done some research.

There's no trademark for this. There's no patent for this. I think this will be a great idea. You have to do the work to demonstrate to other people that not only is it an idea, it's an idea that you believe in, you've done some work. So when I always check and see what are you coming to the table with?

Not just an idea, but have you done anything towards the idea? When I was speaking with someone recently and they were like, Oh I really want to do X, Y and Z. And I said, Well, okay, you play golf three times a week. You are in pickleball four times a week. I said, how much effort are you putting into that idea?

Do you sit at your office even when you don't have it all figured out for the four hours that you've given to pickleball and golf, right? If you haven't done that, even if it's just like that effort, that mind power attracts other things, other people that will help your idea get across the threshold. But if all you're doing is just sitting on an idea and saying I got a great idea, it's gonna be difficult to take it out. I think they call it, the young folks call it like take it out the group chat. It's gonna be hard to take it out of whatever your idea phase.

You need to put energy and effort behind it. That's the only way it's going to make anything possible to where you think it's gonna go.

Joe Rando: Do you find some people are afraid to tell anybody their idea because it's so great somebody will steal it? Have you seen that?

Brandon Williams: Yeah. I have. And what I would say and I don't, you know, again, I'm a lawyer so I don't give short shrift to this, but I would also say your idea is just an idea unless you start working on it and telling people about it. Alright, you may be trying to protect something, one, that is pointless, right? you don't know, like have you done the research to even know if this isn't a novel idea?

It may be a great idea. It may be something and I think that like people get held up on, oh well I don't know if I tell somebody they'll steal it, if I tell somebody they'll take it. Listen, at the end of the day and again this probably isn't the thing I would tell every one of my clients but I would say is like you've gonna have to tell somebody at some point, right? Sure, I can come up with an NDA, no problem. That's actually a good start.

Or when I tell you about it, but if I just came to you Joe and said, hey, I've got this great idea but before I do it I'm gonna give you this NDA, you might say, I don't need to know what your idea is, right? it depends upon what your risk profile is like, I'm not signing an NDA, don't even know what it is, right? Like I think you've got to understand that in information age, which is where we are, a lot of people have ideas and a lot of people have information, right? So if what your whole point is, I'm not gonna tell people because someone will take it. I mean, I just don't think that's gonna get you anywhere in 2026.

I think you've gotta trust that your idea, if it's worthy as you think it is, it will make it pass whatever this someone's gonna steal it concept.

Joe Rando: And an NDA, just for our listeners that don't know, it's a nondisclosure agreement. So basically somebody agrees not to discuss what you tell them. Is that right?

Brandon Williams: Absolutely. That's right.

Carly Ries: Okay. Well, so I want to pick your legal brain. And in terms of getting this business started, getting it from idea to real business, what kind of legal or structural mistakes do you see solopreneurs make early, that ends up like kinda limiting their growth later on that you wish you could just stop them from the get go?

Brandon Williams: Know the most important one and I would say it's without fail, If you early on enter into business with the wrong partner, I have seen this fight so many times and let me explain what I mean. A lot of times people come in with a new idea or it's a young business and they have three partners, right? So it's four of them. I would say 75% of the time the fight that I am dealing with within the first twelve to twenty four months is one person doesn't like the other person anymore.

Two people don't want to do business anymore. Then they're trying to figure out how that they split the business. The partnership agreement is not solid enough. The operating agreement isn't solid enough. And it almost kills the business, right?

And so what I always tell people is be very, very and I mean, I'm putting another very on it, careful about who you start your business with. I don't care if they're your best friend, I don't care if they're your family member. Like it is going to be a thing later on and if it's not, the only way that I think you can handle that is essentially you have like a business pre nup, right? And that it spells out what happens to the business if this doesn't work out. Even if that provision is one line, even if the provision is I keep the IP, I'll pay you $5,000 if we break up within a year.

If it's within two years, I'll pay you $10,000 I think I have seen so many what I would call people that have had great ideas, potentially very good businesses, that partnership thing really really impacts down the road what your business is going to be or could be.

Joe Rando: Another good reason to be a solopreneur.

Yeah.

Brandon Williams: Exactly.

Carly Ries: But those things still need to be in place with contractors. you still need to get those How to bring them down with the contractors you work with. It may not be a partner since you're running your own business. But things can go south with contractors who have not been good with anybody.

Brandon Williams: you're even and you know, again, I think this is the important part. Joe and Carly, you both know this, but even if you're a solopreneur, your business is going to depend upon other people. You're going to be involved in your business with other people whether it's today, tomorrow, next year, five years. If you've got people that you're bringing on as consultants, if you've got people that you're bringing on as potential partner, like you're going to have to deal with other people. solopreneur is idea wise awesome. But there will be other people that you're gonna have to get involved in your business and you just wanna be careful about who those people are. Absolutely.

Carly Ries: Mhmm. Absolutely. So if someone is just trying to get traction, let's say more clients, more visibility, partnerships we were talking about earlier, what should they have in place legally before their business skyrockets and takes off like a rocket?

Brandon Williams: Yeah. I like to have again, depending upon your risk profile, but I also think this is just the energy of your business. I'm a big person about structure. I don't tend to tell people to just operate as solopreneurs even though solopreneusr start some level of business, right? So whether you want to start a single member LLC, whether you want a C Corp that is a one shareholder person C Corp, I don't care what it is.

I think just from , I believe in this business , kind of what I was talking about earlier energy effort, what you're putting into it, how you view your business matters. And so I think one of the earliest things I will tell people simply, start your single member LLC, right? Get an EIN, open up a bank account. Well, things are important too because down the road God forbid somebody comes and says Carly your product blew up in my face and I'm gonna sue you. Well, if you were just running your business as a single person with no entity protection what happens is that lawsuit is against you personally, right?

And so that then impacts your home, your car, your spouse, your Dog. Everything, right? But if you had even at the most basic level, a single member LLC, which in most states, if you're in Delaware it's $350 or $500, in Georgia it's a $100. I mean these aren't significant costs, but they can save you from, a world of issues down the road, right? And somebody may say they're solopreneurs, I don't have a $100.

I understand that, but if you're gonna get into business at some point you're gonna have to put some money into your business. And I think that you would serve yourself well as a gating item once your idea is off, out of the group chat so to speak and it's on a piece of paper and you've got your first contract and you're selling a product to Walmart, you should probably think about, do I have a company set up or a corporation set up, even if it's just me? That's a perfect place to start.

Joe Rando: You know what I love though? Just because you said this in the beginning, because I agree with you 100% on getting the business set up and protecting yourself from liability, but what you said at the beginning was make it into a thing. And I never thought of it that way before, but when you take that and create that entity, it's almost like you've taken the business from an abstraction to a real thing. And I really like that.

I think that could be powerful. I never thought about it before. Thank you for that perspective,

Carly Ries: Well, a new one and another thing you talk about doing from the beginning is protecting your legacy while you build it. What exactly does that mean, what does that look like? So you also talk about protecting your legacy from the beginning and while you build this business. So for someone who is still in early stages and doesn't feel like they have a quote unquote legacy, what does that look like? What does that even mean?

Brandon Williams: Yeah. I mentioned, one of my clients from a decade ago was an ice cream maker. And so one of the other things that I told him and this will go just to that story. When he came in he said, you know, we're just this little ice cream company, right? And I said, well where's the ice cream being sold?

And he said, oh, well you can get it at Whole Foods. And I said, okay, I'm gonna go buy some this afternoon. So I went to Whole Foods and they were there and I bought five different types of the ice cream. I go sit down and I had it that night and then I end up sending him an email. I tasted the five and I was like, wow this is really good. So I sent him an email and I said, somebody has to be the next Haagen Dazs, why not you? And so when I say legacy, they had an idea that made it out, got on a piece of paper and got a business plan, they told some people about it, they had a beautiful name, right? They told me why the name was what it was, they had gotten into Whole Foods and this is all before they'd ever had a lawyer, So this is look how much effort that they did before they even found somebody. They had to do a lot of things just to get there.

They had production, they had marketing, they had all these things to make it into a thing, right? They had formed the company with the Georgia Secretary of State. And so their legacy was, and they used it, I said somebody has to be the next Haagen Dazs. Why not you? R

That's something that they took on and thought on early on, right? Because it wasn't what they are today. If you think about what I said earlier, don't think about what you are today. You don't think about the little thing that you are today. Where do you see yourself twelve months from now, twenty four months from now, thirty six months from now?

What do you want to see your business be or become? And so that's how I think about legacy is not where we are today. I wanna think about myself as like, wow, we're this brand, we're this name and everything that I do is feeding into that. I don't focus that much on today and I try to tell clients the same thing. It's like, no, we're not focusing on today.

We're focusing on 2028, 2029. And I don't mean that in a fanciful way. I'm meaning that if you see yourself and your legacy as something almost like a finished item, the things that you do today will all be towards that goal. And so if you're doing excellent things today and today and today and today and you do that every single day up until 2029, you'll get there. So that's why I say I always am trying to think what's down the road?

Not about today. What , where, when are we gonna get to that thing? And I think if you work enough towards that enough days that you pile on and pile on, add compound interest, add compound interest every day of doing that thing it just it's going to work out. I can't tell you exactly how it's going to work out, but if you're putting that much effort into it, it is going to work.

Carly Ries: I love that. Okay. So taking a look at everything we've talked about in this interview, what would you say one boundary, system, structure, whatever, what do you think every solopreneur should implement that would immediately make their business stronger?

Brandon Williams: I think the first one is just start it in the right way. And I think Joe hit on it and my mind is don't view your business as it's just you by yourself, right? Like you have people that can assist, people that can help, there are other people that talk to people, I always when I was young in my businesses I found the people that were super successful and what I was trying to do and I just would pick their brain,

Like if you have a business and you're like, well there's this other business that's ten years older than us and I know that's where I want to be in ten years. Go find that person, The thing that most people don't understand or what even solopreneurs they don't focus on is people are willing to help. People are willing to tell you their wartime stories, their success stories. And I think that utilizing those people will help.

Utilizing contractors, utilizing people, you don't have to do it alone, notwithstanding that you're a solopreneur. If you think about that there are people, systems, organizations that will assist your business, help you along, provide wind at your sails, I think the sky is the limit, right? Like I think it and again, a lot of what you hear me talking is almost like the mental part, don't limit it, Like don't limit what your viewpoint of what your business is or is going to be. Think about it from not today, tomorrow.

Think about it from not just you, but who are the people around me? I mean, can my wife help? Can my husband help? there are people that will help you along but you also have to tell them, You gotta tell them what you're doing.

It's not the idea is just I don't wanna tell people because somebody's gonna take my idea. Well, you don't tell your friends, they can't help you. you know, it's not their fault. They can't buy your product or tell someone else about your product, if you don't give them the information and be able to do that.

Carly Ries: Well, Brandon, so much of what you said today has been so inspirational and so helpful for solopreneurs. So I wanna ask you, what is your favorite quote about success? What are somebody else's quote of inspiration that you like?

Brandon Williams: Yeah. I think that what I would say in terms of success is, success is really, really hard, And what I mean by that is it is day in day out, work, work, work effort thinking failing trying. People that make it they fail like a thousand times, right? The people that are like on the magazines or the best solopreneur of the year or this person has got this new business or whatever it may be.

I just think you have to understand it is a big sacrifice, right? It doesn't matter what your business is. you have to put the time, you have to put the effort And if it were easy, I know that sounds cliche, but it's the truth. Everyone would do it, right? Like Joe talked about it earlier, it's like, there are these businesses that he's started and gotten successful at is because the other people weren't doing it, right?

And it is hard though, and if people think that they're gonna work two hours a day and go be at every kid's event and be, you know, I can be the dad of the year every single day and I'm picking up the kids from school every day and I'm at every single dinner, every single lunch, Like it's not, that's just not what it is. And I know that some folks, and especially in 2026, was like work life balance and it's all my balance is I work really really hard and I am home for dinner and that may be home for dinner but I also will likely be going back to the office after dinner and after the kids are down, right? It's starting my morning instead of starting my morning at 07:30, my morning starts at 05:30, right? Because it just does, it takes the time it takes, right? You can't like ease your way into success.

And so my quote about success is always, success is really really hard because I don't want people to think that is this imaginary thing that just happens, I got a great idea and it's all of a sudden Facebook. Well, you know what, Mark Zuckerberg has worked really really hard and he probably still works really really hard. Does he have a lot of people and systems in place? Sure, but he doesn't work two hours a day.

I can promise you that because the universe in many many ways won't allow that, The universe is inertia, it's energy. Business is inertia and it's energy. What you put into it, you will get out of it. And it's not gonna let you cheat.

So if you work thirty minutes a day, your success is gonna look like thirty minutes a day. And so I would think that would be my final takeaway is just work really hard, and you know, live your life but just understand that it's going to be really really difficult for you to become successful.

Carly Ries: So well said. Well Brandon, if we wanna find out more about you, where can they find you online?

Brandon Williams: Oh sure. I'm obviously on LinkedIn, look up Brandon Williams, I'm an attorney. Look up Steve Harvey Global Law Corp, I'm on there. I'm on Instagram as MrBizlaw, m r b I z l a w. And my email is brandon@lawcorpllc.com.

Carly Ries: Love it. Well, thank you so so much for coming on this show today. I have loved this discussion.

Brandon Williams: I really appreciate it. it was great. I love the questions. I love the back and forth. I love Joe, you filling in and asking things. It was very enjoyable for me too.

Carly Ries: Great. Well, and listeners, hopefully it was enjoyable for you as well. And as always, please leave that five star review. It helps us spread the word to other solopreneurs. Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform, including YouTube, and share this episode with a friend.

And we'll see you next time on the Aspiring Solopreneur. You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs.

Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.