If you’ve ever felt busy, productive, and still oddly stuck, this episode might explain why.

As solopreneurs, it’s natural to assume that effort equals progress. You refine your messaging, tweak your website, polish your offers, and optimize details, all with the belief that this is what moving forward looks like.

And to be fair, that kind of effort does matter at certain stages.

But there comes a point where working harder on the wrong things quietly stalls the business.

In this episode of The Solopreneur CEO Podcast, Carin and Marcia talk candidly about why smart, capable solopreneurs often pour energy into fixing the wrong things and how that pattern keeps businesses from growing the way they should.

This isn’t about laziness or lack of discipline.

It’s about misdirected leadership attention.

Listen to the Episode

In this conversation, Carin and Marcia unpack how busywork often becomes a form of leadership deflection. When the real decisions feel uncomfortable or unclear, it’s easy to focus on tasks that feel safe, familiar, and controllable.

They talk through why over-optimizing details can feel productive without creating meaningful change, and how perfectionism and constant tweaking often mask deeper leadership decisions that are being avoided. You’ll hear why many solopreneurs stay stuck not because they aren’t trying hard enough, but because they’re still operating from an operator mindset when the business requires CEO-level focus.

This episode is about learning to distinguish between activity and impact, and understanding that growth comes from directing attention toward leverage, not effort alone.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• Why being busy doesn’t always mean you’re moving forward

• How smart solopreneurs end up fixing the wrong things

• The difference between comfortable busywork and real leverage

• Why over-optimizing details can stall growth

• How leadership deflection shows up in everyday decisions

• Why backend structure matters more than front-end polish

• How CEO-level focus creates momentum and clarity

Key Takeaways

• Not all effort moves the business forward.

• Busywork often feels safer than leadership decisions.

• Operator mode prioritizes tasks, CEO mode prioritizes leverage.

• Over-fixing details can be a form of avoidance.

• Clear focus on what matters most creates momentum without burnout.

Continue the Conversation

If this episode helped you notice where your attention has been going, you’re invited to continue the conversation in our Solopreneur CEO community.

It’s a low-noise space for solopreneurs who want thoughtful conversation, grounded support, and a better way to lead a business that works without burning out.

Episode Transcript

Solopreneur CEO Show Episode 7: Below is the full transcript of this episode for those who prefer to read or want to revisit specific parts of the conversation.

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Marcia

We have a great episode for you today following up on last week's episode, all about deciding to be the boss, the CEO in your business. We're going to be talking about how sometimes we can make decisions to work on things that aren't necessarily needle movers. They might be stall tactics. Usually this is a subconscious thing, it's not necessarily like we set out to spin our wheels and burn our time. So we want to talk about making the right decisions that are going to actually help your business.

Carin and I really believe with solopreneurs that you can build a "lean mean operating machine". I've always had issues with the way that big corporations run and the way that the governments run. And I think that there's this belief that you should be working 9 to 5. You should clock in for your 40 hours. Everything should be based on the amount of time exchanged for the paycheck.

Well when you're a solopreneur and you're a business owner, you're getting your paycheck when you're providing value. For me I like that money more than when I was an employee, and I was like, am I even working on the right stuff? Why am I in a meeting? Why are we doing this? Why am I writing something that's really compelling and then it's going through four different people until it gets so chopped up that all of the emotion and feeling is gone from it?

It really, really, really bothers me.

Just like that bothered me too, there were times in my first society running the Charmed Cardinals that I did make decisions and I was trying to make decisions that I thought were needle movers, but they weren't. It was basically me just deflecting my leadership, and I think that is what made things spin out.

Carin:

The whole concept of needle movers and making sure that your effort is going towards the things that are going to give you the best return on the investment of that time and energy is so important.

I love when you said, I was just deflecting my own leadership. Because a lot of times I think that is what's happening. And it's not on purpose, obviously. No one is like let me just not be a leader of this business. Let me just, stay in operator mode and keep myself busy with busy work. No one is going to consciously think that. But it's an easy, comfortable place to be, especially because you start your business usually because you have a passion in something or you have a skill in something. Or there's an area that maybe you have done at work and now you've started a side hustle, which grew into a main hustle. All along the way, it's not been something where maybe you took that intentional, I'm starting a company. Because it is a company, right? Limited liability corporation. An LLC is normally what people start. When you approach it like, okay, this is my company. Even if I'm the only employee, it's still my company, right? I'm the CEO, CFO, COO, all the o's.

But it's a company and I'm building a business. I'm building something that I want to be able to run and grow.

When you're thinking of it that way, the decisions that you would make or the places that you would decide to put your time and energy and effort, it's going to be a little different because the mindset you're bringing is going to be okay, I'm the CEO, I own this business. I don't really want to just run it.

So what does that really mean? What does that look like? What does it mean in the decisions you're going to make? The things that you'll work on, the funnels that you'll stop tweaking, the Canva graphics that you'll be like, that's good enough, and move on.

Because you don't want to spend so much time on things that are not going to move the needle. No one is going to notice that it was a little more to the left. I'm sorry, I know it kind of hurts, right? Because we put so much time into it and we care. So we're like, they don't care?

They don't. No one is going to care.

I was at training recently and the coach said, assume that everyone who signs up for your thing did so by accident and has no clue why they're here.

It's so interesting. When I think, what if they were like, okay, What is this? I’ll buy it. Did they really read it? Did they really digest it? Do they really care? What was it that grabbed them? What he was trying to say is that you are constantly fighting for this person's attention and for them to buy in and be bought in. Like, okay, I want to work with Carin. This is what she's offering, this is what we're going to do together. I can't assume that it's going to be readily obvious to them, right? Like they read a page and they signed up and so they get it now.

But that's a lot of times what we'll do. My point is we spend so much time and effort on things that the person is not really paying attention to. And so if we would just put that time and effort into the things that really will move the needle, that really help someone move through the process on your systems, on the experience that they're having. Because again, they don't care if the Canva graphic was a little more to the left, but that's the type of stuff that I find clients spend a lot of time on. Hopefully all of that made sense. Marcia, what do you think?

Marcia:

Yeah, it made total sense. And it made me think about my personal experience and before we even hit record, I was talking about something Carin had said to my son and he's like, oh my God, Carin is so smart.

I'm like, I know, she really is. You are able to take so much information and for me, I think it's because of the A DHD, the hypersensitivity, that kind of thing. I get very overwhelmed very easily, and so whenever I am looking at things to sign up for. I am pulling data from different places. So usually if I'm going to work with someone, I'm going to connect with their videos. because I'm a very visual person along with audio processing. So if I hear what they're saying and I see what they're saying, and then I go to a landing page, and even if it's kind of clunky, or it's not laid out perfectly, if I've made it to the landing page, I'm probably like 70% going to sign up. Especially if you get me off of one platform onto another one.

I'm pretty fascinated what you said about this guy because at first I was like, that's terrifying to have someone enter your ecosystem and be like, I don't even know why I'm here, I just got good vibes from Marcia. So I'm here.

I'd be like, oh my God, like where do I begin? Because that's just how I am. I have to create something completely different for every single individual. Because we're all so individualistic and oh my God, it's a shit show.

Your audience, everybody is going to be processing things differently. You trying to create the perfect landing page, you tweaking it until it's formatted just like how the best professionals say it needs to be formatted or whatever. It's not necessary.

It's part faith, it's part trust, and it's doing the work, but knowing that your message or your vibe or your expertise. Knowing that what you're putting out there is going to draw in the right people and trusting that if they really want to work with you, they're going to work with you.

I don't want to put anyone on blast, but I'm in a program and it's because I fell in love with the founder. I found them very entertaining and engaging, and they can also synthesize information like Carin and communicate it in a way where I'm like, oh, that makes sense to my brain.

I keep getting notifications, you need to renew your membership. And I'm like, dude, I did this. I keep sending a screenshot. In my mind I'm like, fix your backend. For me, I'm a very patient and forgiving person and I'm very empathetic because I know how it is, and fortunately they're selling to other business owners.

But it's like, if I get the notification one more time, I don't know if I'm going to pop off.

We've had snow for over two weeks and I've had people in my house and there's been an injury. I'm going through a lot emotionally and so when the business system things happen, I'm just like, fix your f4ck!ng $hi+.

That was a whole tangent. As you can tell, I'm, I'm having a difficult time. We're in Virginia. We're not in freaking Montana. This snow everywhere needs to stop immediately,

Carin:

Right? We do not do snow.

Well, not like this. It's too much. Yeah, I'm with you. You made me think of something. Poster child for multi-passionate, I think that would be me, right? I have so many different interests it's not even funny. Astrology is one of my favorite little hobbies on the side and understanding myself through astrology.

So I'm going to set the scene. I'm on Instagram and my friend shares an astrology thing about the fire horse year. I don't know what it was specifically about, but I really like this girl, right? I watch her video and then I go to her page, I start watching more videos.

I'm in. She's hooked me. Her ecosystem is working. I'm all in. So I click the link in her bio, like she told me. I go to her page. Beautiful landing page, everything lovely. I'm in. I'm still bought in, right? I'm like, okay, what is she selling? What does she got? She says something about a reading.

I see the reading. I'm like, okay, oh, it's half off! I'm in, 50 bucks. No problem. I sign up, pay, go through the checkout and nothing happens. I get no email. There's zero confirmation that I even checked out. It went back to her main landing page, so I was like, what just happened? Maybe 10 minutes later, I finally got a receipt from whatever system she uses.

So I was like, oh, okay. It did go through. That's good to know. But literally nothing else. No, oh, I'm so glad you just signed up and this is what to expect next, and this is when you're going to get your reading. Nothing. So I am at my highest high and then completely deflated. I can tell she spent so much time on her ecosystem.

Her videos are amazing. Her landing page was beautiful. Everything to get me here. And then the thing that I think matters the most… Her landing page could have been ugly. It could have been black and white with no graphics. I still would've signed up because I cared about what it said. I cared about the things she was selling.

I didn't care about the f4ck!ng graphics. But she completely $h!t the bed on the part that mattered. Which is after I f4ck!ng gave her money. Like keep me engaged. Assume that I don't even know what I just signed up for, that I did it by mistake. Send me a freaking welcome video or something.

I'm so shocked that I got nothing. It was maybe two weeks later when she sent the message, oh, I'm sorry guys. If you've bought a reading, I'm kind of behind. I have some family problems. I'm fine with all of that. I don't care when she sends it to me, if I'm being honest. The problem is that there was no managing of my expectations.

There was no communication and what's unfortunate is, I've worked with enough people to know that that's not an uncommon situation. So many people spend so much time on the front, the prettiness, the attraction. They get you in and completely $h!t the bed on the part that matters the most. Because once you got the person and they gave you money, they probably would've bought more shit.

I'm never buying from her again. I probably would've bought more readings. You want to send me a spell? Let's go. I was at my highest moment. I was so excited. I was bought in. I loved her videos. Her whole thing worked, but then she just completely flaked on the part where effort would've been needed.

And that's our point, right? So much time and energy on these things. It's not that it doesn't matter, it's not that it's not important. Yes, you want to have a beautiful ecosystem that draws people in, gives them the vibe, all the things that was done right. But if you're doing all of the energy there at the cost of the part that matters the most, the needle movers, the thing that would've created a repeat buyer. That’s a loss.

One $50 is okay, that's nice. Someone paying you $50 over and over again, buying it when it's not half off. Someone staying in your world and being a repeat customer, that is gold. And so many people that are solopreneurs are turning that business away. And they're not trying to, it's just because that's not where they're putting their time and energy.

They're getting you in, and then it's just falling apart on the back end because the systems aren't there, the process isn't there. She didn't have to be present for any of it. All she had to do was have a solid onboarding process and it could have wowed the f4c3 outta me and I would've been like, let me buy some more stuff. Instead I'm never buying again.

Marcia:

The cost of acquisition for a new customer or client, that's expensive. So when you do have them, make sure that they're happy.

People who buy, they want to keep buying from you. They're opening their wallet the first time and they're more likely to do it in the future than people who have never worked with you before.

I feel bad for that person because I could tell your excitement and I know that you are very loyal. You would've happily paid that money, like you would've paid a hundred bucks. She is providing value for free to hook the people, but then that backend stuff isnt set up.

We're not always going to have everything perfect. You have to look at everything in your business through the lens of, is this making the system easier for me? Is it making it easier for my customers? Is it helping me to keep clients that I currently have?

When we go into these recordings we want to talk to each person individually, regardless of what their business is. If you are providing a $50 service or a thousand dollars service. But you're never going to regret spending more time looking at it from the customer's angle.

Or the leads angle too.

When I was talking about the Charmed Cardinals situation, I spent so much time and energy tweaking everything in there. I made it very robust and lovely for the clients that I had. But the onboarding, this was like over a decade ago, so there weren’t as many automations.

What I love now about Carin and my partnership is we are able to set up funnels or workflows. All of that type of stuff where it is that very high touch benefit for people who are, are entering our ecosystem.

Where back in the day you did have to be waiting for the email like, so and so signed up for this or whatever. But I was always on, which we highly don't recommend. Now you don't always have to be on. Now you can use the systems.

What we have with the community and membership everything is connected. Everything is like the breadcrumbs along the path. Everything is leading to the next thing, which then results in them being in the community or being in the membership and knowing I just need to subscribe to the calendar and then I'm going to show up for the hot seat coaching, i'm going to show up for the intention setting, show up for the quarterly workshops. It's super simple for them. There's no question or doubt in their mind like, oh my god, Carin and Marcia just stole my identity because they got my debit card number or credit card or whatever.

What we're saying is if you have clients and you want to get more clients, just work on your backend. Do some squats.

Carin:

That's too funny. I think that's what we're saying is they have to go together, right?

You can't focus all on the front end and none on the backend. You have to have both dialed in, but if you have to pick one to start with, it's the backend. Because the backend being smooth and well-oiled is going to make it much easier for your front end to yield greater returns. You spend time on the front end getting your content going, all of that.

But as long as your back end is solid and you have good processes for nurturing the leads that come into your world, the client onboarding is dialed in and really smooth, and the way you deliver your offer or your course, or whatever it is that you sell. As long as that is really popping, that's what is going to make the front end even easier.

Like Marcia said, you'll get referrals, you'll have people posting on Instagram, oh my God, I love working with Carin, dah, dah, dah, dah. Right? That is what you want. And it makes it so much easier to market.

That's what it is to be making those CEO decisions. When we're saying, making a CEO decision to not be tinkering and tweaking endlessly and putting energy into the things that are going to move the needle.

It's making sure that back end is solid so that your front end doesn't have to work as hard, and the work that it does do is going to have 10 x return because the backend is so solid.