Streamlined Solopreneur: Easy Productivity & Tech Systems for Solopreneurs

Are you missing the boat on user-generated content? User-Generated Content (UGC) isn’t just for getting testimonials on social media. In fact, today’s guest, Tory Gray, says we can use it for almost anything: SEO, user research, social proof, FAQs, and so much more. And she should know! Tory is a highly experienced digital marketing consultant and the Founder of The Gray Dot Company. With more than 15 years of experience in SEO and growth strategy, Tory has helped numerous businesses achieve their goals through digital strategy with a focus on technical and strategic SEO. On top of the great advice, we walk through a scenario: building a landing page from scratch with UGC. Don’t miss it! Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about the mother of all UGC websites: Reddit.

Top Takeaways

• You can create full pages of content from UGC, from photos to social proof to FAQs. 
• Your process for collecting UGC doesn’t have to be complicated. You can have a Google Form or Doc with some pointed questions, or a swipe file. 
• If you’re not sure where to start with a new product, look at UGC for similar brands and products. People are already asking questions online. Do a social media or Google Keyword search!

Show Notes

• Tony Gray
• Tony on Linkedin
• How to Get a Trademark with Rian Kinney

Sponsored by: Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

Check out Calm History at https://calmhistory.com

Join my FREE Newsletter, Podcast Workflows

A few weeks ago Jay Clouse wrote about Experimentality on his blog. This is a concept I love because experimenting is the only way to know if what you're doing works as best as it can.

I've been experimenting a lot with my podcast, content, and automation. I like writing about what I'm trying for my members...I think it's a big benefit of the membership.

I thought I'd give you a little peek into two experiments I'm running now.

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

“I despise social media.” This was my first impression of Tim Stoddart, and I was hooked. If you're feeling frustrated and discouraged by the lack of engagement relying solely on social media posts, you are not alone! But you, like me, might be taking the wrong approach. Tim says long-form content is king, and he should know. He’s the CEO of Copyblogger and writes prolifically. If you’ve been struggling to make an impact through short-form content, this interview is a must-listen.

Get the top takeaways, show notes, and transcript at https://howibuilt.it/323

Sponsored by:

• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Earlier this month I made two decisions about the newsletter that you may have noticed:

1. I got rid of the “Quick Hits” section (which was mostly my own content) in favor of a 300-500 word section on some top-of-mind topic.
2. I added a monthly digest of all the content I put out during the month, sent on the last weekday of the month.

The two are related. I still want a way to let my newsletter subscribers know about the content I’ve put out, in case they missed it. But it also serves 2 other purposes:

1. It allows me to promote the month’s podcast episodes one more time.
2. The sponsors get one more mention in the newsletter each month.

After putting it together manually, I knew there had to be a better way, so I built version one of a Monthly Digest Engine, designed to aggregate and format all of my links, which I can then add to ConvertKit.

Here’s how I built it.

Sign up at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe

https://casabona.org/2023/06/building-a-monthly-digest-engine/ 

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

What do you get when you follow the pack instead of doing what’s best for you? A bad content strategy. A year ago, I decided to focus on short-form content because I saw all the “thread Bois” doing it and thought it would help my business. 

It didn’t. But luckily, you can course-correct your strategies. And thanks to some key talks and inspiration from CEX and Craft+Commerce, I’ve decided that long form is the best strategy for my business (and probably yours, too). 

Get the top takeaways, show notes, and transcript at https://howibuilt.it/322

Sponsored by:

• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA
• Gapscout: ChatGPT insights, but for market research

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Picture this: it's 2020. Your spouse is a nurse. You have one small kid with another on the way. You know child care will fall full to you for at least half the week.

Oh, and you're trying to run a business. What would you do if your work week was effectively cut in half?

I knew I needed to get help in my business, so I found a VA. Over a few episodes, I'll talk about working with my VA, starting with how I decided I needed one and where I found her.

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

We live in an age where everything needs to be fast, easy, and in high volume. I’ve seen people say, “I’m going to write 8 books this year.” Josh Bernoff thinks that’s a load of crap. See, if you want to write a good book, just like anything of quality, you need to spend time on it. Josh’s new book, Build a Better Business Book, is a master class on how to do that. And today, he’s giving us the best parts of that book. In the PRO show, things get real as we talk more about the charlatans of writing, as well as ghostwriting.

Top Takeaways

• To write a good book, your idea has to be big, right, and new. This will make it distinguishable from everything else, and increase your impact and influence. 
• A good business book consists of two things: answers to reader questions, and case studies. Your book is nothing if you don’t have case studies to back up your claim.
• Are you a planner, or a panter? Panters write by the seat of their pants, which creates a long, rambling, incoherent book. Planners start with what Josh calls a “fat outline,” so they know the story they’re telling before they ever put pen to page.

Show Notes

• Josh Bernoff
• Josh on Twitter
• Josh on Facebook
• Josh on Linkedin
• Build a Better Business Book
• Blitzscaling

Sponsored by: Gapscout | Sensei

Sponsored by:

• Sensei: Save 20% FOR LIFE with code JOECASABONA
• Gapscout: ChatGPT insights, but for market research

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Apple is rarely the first to market with a product, and for good reason. Here are 4 lessons you can learn from Apple introducing the Vision Pro at the beginning of the month.

Link: Thoughts and Lesson from the Apple Vision Pro Presentation at the WWDC

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

Are you a “Field of Dreams” marketer? Someone who thinks, “If I build it, they will come.” I was for a long time. Sometimes it feels like I still am. That’s why I was excited to talk to Julian Garsdean. He blends psychology and business in a way I haven’t seen before to help business owners stand out and sell more. As creators, we can learn a ton from addressing the 6 basic needs in our own content and products. Listen for these top takeaways:

Top Takeaways

• Businesses aren’t just transactions. They are run by people, for people. The sooner you realize that the sooner you’ll connect with your potential customers. 
• Establish your identity. Being too general means you’re not connecting with anyone. Doing a deep dive into your identity, and the persona of your customers, makes them relate to your more. 
• The key to negotiations is…you guessed it…understanding the needs of the person on the other side of the table. Do that, and you’ll be able to quantify your value in something other than numbers.

Show Notes

• Julian Garsdean
• Julian on Linkedin
• You Need to Form Good Writing Habits with Dickie Bush
• The RIGHT Way to Pitch Sponsors for Your Content with Justin Moore
• $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No

Sponsored by: Gapscout | TextExpander | Sendinblue

Sponsored by:

• Brevo: Get 50% off your first 3 months with code JOE
• TextExpander: Save 20% off your first year 
• Gapscout: ChatGPT insights, but for market research

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Streamlined Solopreneur is the podcast for solopreneurs who want to automate their business and take time off worry-free. Each week, Joe Casabona shares practical systems, tools, and strategies to help you reclaim your time and run your business without sacrificing your the rest of your life, or your health. 

Start with the free Solopreneur Sweep — a step-by-step method for finding where your business is losing time: https://streamlined.fm/sweep

If this episode helped you, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts helps other solopreneurs find the show — it only takes a minute and means a lot.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/

About a month ago I went on a quest to find the perfect webinar software. I create a spreadsheet and everything.

But at CEX, I had a great conversation with Luria Petrucci of Live Stream Pros and I asked her, “What do you think is the best way to run a webinar?”

Here's what she said, and why.

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Streamlined Solopreneur helps solopreneurs stop doing it all themselves, with simple systems that give them their time back.

Each week, Joe Casabona shares one practical idea — a system, tool, or strategy to help you get your time back without having to make another decision, hire employees, or sell your soul to AI.

Looking for a place to start? Take the Solo Systems Starter Quiz. 60 seconds, 8 questions, and I will tell you what system you should build first, and exactly how to build it (so YOU don't need to make another decision). https://streamlined.fm/quiz 

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcasabona/