The Art of Going Solo with Ole Lehman the AI Solopreneur

Akta [00:00:00]: How do you stand out in a crowded market and grow your business as a creator?

Ole [00:00:04]: If you want to sell something, this could be a newsletter. This could be paid product. You have to talk about this shitload. You have to talk about it all the time, because if you don't do it, people just scroll through their feed. They don't see your stuff. The algorithm will, like, hide your stuff from some people. So the more you'll post, the more results you get. Also for plugs.

Ole [00:00:20]: Like, it will piss off some people. But I think, like, the long game, you have to find a balance, right? You can't spam without giving actual value, but you also cannot expect people to understand where they have to go if you don't talk about it enough.

Akta [00:00:31]: Ole Lehman is the founder of AI Solopreneur. He grew from zero to 100,000 followers on Twitter in just 65 days and built a six figure business in the space of four months. In today's episode of creators on air, Ola shares his growth strategies, how he successfully launched digital products, and how he plans to continue growing.

Ole [00:00:51]: I mean, I think it has to do with some parts of my story. So last year was really shitty for me, to be honest. There was this big crypto scam called FTX was a crypto exchange, crypto broker, and it went bankrupt. And with this bankruptcy, it took most of my money, which was nice. So I was in crypto before for a couple of years, and I don't know, I feel like it was kind of destiny, maybe just life had me choose what to do next, basically. And around the same time, I just saw chat GBT for the first time and just had the feeling, man, I just want to create something new. And instead of doing something that's based on speculation, as crypto is, I really want to do it like something that's more valuable to people and teach some new stuff. And for me, it's always the best way to learn something is to really teach it to someone else and to keep myself accountable.

Ole [00:01:45]: So that's why I decided, okay, really like this AI stuff. And I've also been a solopreneur for basically all of my life. And it was just kind of a stacking of two topics that I was really interested in and I could also relate to. Right. So there was some kind of planning in terms of, oh, I know, solopreneurship is kind of a hot topic because, I mean, guys like Justin Welch really made it big on Twitter, but it was also, okay, how can I connect something that I'm interested in. I'm really curious about with something that connects with who I am, and that's how the AI solopreneur came about.

Akta [00:02:20]: I love that. And I feel like you grew really rapidly, both with your newsletter and your social media platform. So if I'm not mistaken, you grew from zero to 100k on Twitter in like 65 days. What do you think contributed to that rapid growth?

Ole [00:02:35]: I think there is not one thing. I think it was a combination of maybe. I think three factors are really important. So the first of them was really the positioning, because as I said, most of the people were just focused on, these are the AI news, everyone was doing the same shit, and they're mostly like personal accounts. And so I really already niched down my positioning just talking to solopreneurs, which feels like it makes the audience smaller, but there's so many people who are interested in solopreneurship. So I guess the positioning was very on point. And right now I'm not the only AI solopreneur anymore, but I really, under category starter, I would say. So that helped a lot.

Ole [00:03:17]: To be very specific about the audience that I serve and also the audience that I don't serve and the kind of content I don't do. So the positioning was very important then. It was really high volume. So I've done six Twitter threads for the beginning time each week and tweets. So it was high, high volume and also really just focusing on growth threats. People always laugh about the threat guys or the thread boys or whatever, but it just worked. I still think it works. And yeah, it is all about seeing what works and doing like a shitload more of the same thing.

Ole [00:03:52]: So that was my main approach to the content. And the third one is obviously I was riding a wave, and this is not like something I made. Like, I didn't create the AI hype, but it was just huge demand for the topic. Like chat, CBT was going crazy, all the users of AI went crazy. And I think that's so important to understand when there's demand and when there's no demand. So just like riding this wave really helped me, and I'm still growing at a nice speed, but this growth in April and May, it was insane. Yeah, just crazy.

Akta [00:04:26]: It sounds crazy. And I want to jump back into the threads because six threads a week is a lot. So I'm guessing that you've got a lot of insight into what makes a good thread. So how do you approach threads to make them really speak to people?

Ole [00:04:42]: I think, first of all, you have to be aware of trends because there are always these kind of trendy hooks and everyone uses the same one. Honestly, I think I created at least two or three of the AI hook templates that everyone used after this. So it's really finding a good hook for threats is always about finding a strong and good hook. Sometimes what also even work is using a hook that I hate to say it, but that some people just really hate. So you do something like, when it's about logo creation, you're just like, rest in peace, designers, question mark. And everyone who comes like, no, this logo is shit. And this just boosts up your engagement. So that's also a tactic to think about because it drives a lot of engagement.

Ole [00:05:30]: This is not my core strategy, but this is something to keep in mind really about. And I think this is really why AI threats popped off so hard, because so many people also complained about it because it's a big shift in society that some people don't like to see. So you always have people like, oh, we don't need that. That's all shit. No, it will never be a replacement for a real person. Right. Because it's such a seismic shift. And I think leaning into those topics is really good because it will always drive a lot of traffic for you.

Akta [00:06:06]: Yeah. And did you find any challenges come about by growing so rapidly?

Ole [00:06:13]: Any changes, any challenges?

Akta [00:06:15]: So was anything difficult? Like, usually when we think about rapidly growing challenges, yeah.

Ole [00:06:20]: Okay, sorry. Challenges for sure is that you get bombarded by inbound dms and it's so hard to keep up. It's crazy. And also, sometimes there will be really good opportunities coming up your way. But if you get, I don't know, 30 or 40 messages every day or even more, it's very hard to go through them and also understand, is this something that really interests me or is something valuable to me, or is this, like, someone spamming me? And also, the faster you grow, the more weird trolls and really. You will wake up in the Internet. You can always tell if a thread really goes viral. When you start to get a lot of hate, no matter what you do, that's like the sad reality of it.

Ole [00:07:04]: So I think dealing with people, like, just being really bad online to you, that's a hard reality. You have to deal if you want to grow fast, it's going to come with a lot of shit you have to face from people. That's just the truth.

Akta [00:07:17]: Yeah.

Ole [00:07:18]: And, yeah, creating content and growing, it's really hard on your dopamine. System because you're just used to like, oh, this day I grow 5000 followers, next day you grow like one K followers and you're like, what a shit day. That's ridiculous, right? It's so hard to get from and also hard for me before, so it's just crazy because you get used to it so fast. At one point I saw another AI creator and I grew, like, to Hugh grew to like 160. I was like, oh, what am I doing wrong? Is this is not working. And if you think about it, but it's all like in relation. So you really have to be very aware of your own psychology when it comes to growth because I changed the psychology to, I don't want to focus on the pure growth number, but really about the value I create and also about the relationships I build with my audience but also with other creators. And once that changed, it was a big kind of relief for me because being focused on growth is a losing game.

Ole [00:08:15]: You cannot win eternal growth. It's physically not possible or technically, yeah, definitely.

Akta [00:08:23]: And I'm interested how you kind of keep up to date with everything because AI is constantly evolving. There's always new tools, there's always new things going on. And you seem to be creating content in quite a big volume as well. So how are you making sure you keep up to the pace of creating content that's actually up to date and relevant?

Ole [00:08:42]: It's hard, yeah. So I think it's important to have systems in place in terms of, because content usually gives you a signal what people want and what they don't want. And so listening to this is already a great help in terms of to decide. Let's say I put out five threads, right? And one of them completely flops. One of them gets a lot of traction, and the other one are like in the middle. So I'd have a look at both of the bad end and the good end to see, okay, why didn't that one work and why did the other one work? And maybe I can create a slightly different angle of the one that worked, or I see a threat by someone else and be like, okay, how can I twist this? So really building these systems to make content creation easier for you so you don't start at zero, that's really important. I also think AI can be a good help to just help you create some stuff faster. But, yeah, then again, it's a game of reps.

Ole [00:09:39]: In the beginning, it's going to be hard. So for anyone listening, if you just started your creator journey and hear someone, oh, it just creates six threads. It's hard, and it gets way easier the longer you do it, because you just get the hang of it somehow. So I think it's the most important part is just to get started and stay consistent because consistency is really where most people fall off, because it's demanding. It's like a 24/7 job.

Akta [00:10:05]:Definitely. And what about engagement? Because you've mentioned that a lot of other AI creators were creating under their own personal accounts, and you've kind of gone on the approach of being like AI solopreneur. But how do you still make sure that you're maintaining relationships with your audience when it's not under a personal brand?

Ole [00:10:25]: I actually also run my personal brand now. I think now it is like a cool winning combo of having the personal account that's also not only AI based, but it's also like I'm sharing very personal stuff and I share stuff about building the actual business. And I think that combination has really helped me also to sell a lot of products because the trust is just built differently. But in terms of engagement with my audience, I think most of the trust I build is built in my newsletter and not on Twitter. So I see Twitter more as of a top of funnel thing. And I would be lying if I told you, oh, I'm going to answer every comment. I'm not. I don't have the time to comment.

Ole [00:11:09]: I'm just going to be open. I also tried getting a VA to respond to comments, but then it's like, it doesn't sound, it's so off and I feel like people can sense it. Right?

Akta [00:11:17]: Yeah.

Ole [00:11:18]: So I'm like, I'd rather share stuff that's interesting for people. And if they get deeper into my funnel, they get more of me, kind of. Let's say they start on Twitter. Maybe not everyone will get a comment back, but if they are interested, I will go into the newsletter. I would share some more personal stuff. Then maybe they buy my product and they also get to see more of me or they follow my personal profile. So it's more of a world, kind of not only like a single experience through this kind of faceless entity.

Akta [00:11:49]: Yeah. And how do you make sure that funnel actually works? So, for example, how are you driving people from Twitter to your newsletter? Do you have to plug it every so often or is it naturally happening?

Ole [00:12:00]: You plug it all the time. That's also what I learned about. Because also getting people into your newsletter is also selling. Right. It's for free, but you're selling a product. You're selling a free product, basically. So the sell is not as hard. But I think most people go wrong that they don't sell enough in terms of maybe they have a product and they just potentially they send like one email, oh, the product is out.

Ole [00:12:22]: And what I really understood in the last month is like, if you want to sell something, this could be a newsletter, this could be a paid product. You have to talk about this shitload. You have to talk about it all the time, because if you don't do it, people just scroll through their feed, they don't see your stuff. The algorithm will hide your stuff from some people. So the more you'll post, the more results you get. Also for plugs, it will piss off some people. But I think the long game, you have to find a balance, right? You can't spam without giving actual value, but you also cannot expect people to understand where they have to go if you don't talk about it enough.

Akta [00:12:58]: Yeah. And have you found ways of, I guess, communicating in a way that you're still selling, but it's maybe more effective and it's not coming across as salesy.

Ole [00:13:09]: Yeah, for sure. So I think really sharing results of your audience is the best hack you can do. There's no easier sell in terms of, look at what this guy, he just made money with doing my techniques, or another person saved a lot of time for their content creation and they just shared it openly without me asking. That's always great for me. It also helps a lot to share my personal story. For example, I had one post on my personal that was like, I think it was like four months ago, I made my first dollar selling a digital product on Gumroad, which was actually true. And I attached like a screenshot of my old tweet from March when was like, oh my God, I made $9 on Gumroad. Amazing.

Ole [00:13:50]:And then I said, okay, now I made 170k. It's cringe, but those numbers work. That's why I redo it.

Akta [00:13:57]: Yeah.

Ole [00:13:57]: Now I made this amount selling this course. Without content creation, I would be nowhere. If you're interested in the course, here's the link. So you connect it to a personal story, to an outcome that people want to a reference point of. Oh, I've been there too. And I'm not bullshitting you. You can publicly see me posting that. I've been where you are right now only five months ago.

Ole [00:14:20]: And this really motivates people. Like, oh my God, I want that product that works really well.

Akta [00:14:25]: For example, I love that. I love how you've been able to use yourself as an example to people and actually show those results. So let's talk about how you are monetized as a creator. What are your current revenue streams? Like, what makes up the business?

Ole [00:14:38]: Yeah. So my main revenue stream is my digital product sales. I only have one product right now, and I launched it for the first time on the 1 August. So right now it's one month ago, 30 days ago, the first time. So I chose like a drop kind of model. Like open it for four days, then open it for 48 hours again. I will reopen it again, but then keep it open. That's my main revenue driver.

Ole [00:15:01]: So this is like driving, I don't know, 95% of my revenue, something like that, 90. So this is my main revenue driver at the moment. I think last month they made 170 gross, 175 and netted, I think, 155 by the house heads and cost, blah blah blah. But around that number. So it was amazing for me. Completely blew my mind, to be honest. Not going to lie about that then. I'm also doing sponsorships on my newsletter.

Ole [00:15:30]: So I'm selling ad spots, which is around two k a month, which is not huge, but it's like a nice little revenue stream. You also have little in compared. I'm not saying that's little money, little in compared to what my products bring me in. I think it's important to say two K is still a lot of money to get from someone to pay you to write.

Akta [00:15:53]: Definitely.

Ole [00:15:54]: I also done some Twitter sponsorships, but I've done it more in the beginning when I didn't have any products. And honestly, I really want to move away from anything that's like ad related. Because I think it really changes the way you look at your readers and customers. Because if you're selling ad spots, for example, you look at them like, what do I want from you? I want you to click my ad right. That's what I need for me to get paid, and I don't like that. But if you have your own product, it's like, I want you to buy my product. That will give you value and make you better at something, and it will deepen our relationship. That's such a bigger win for me.

Akta [00:16:34]: True.

Ole [00:16:34]: So I realized that this is the way for me going forward. I will also start a paid newsletter. This is the official first announcement. It's not out yet public. Maybe when this podcast comes out. It's already live. Planning to launch this end of September. So I will add like a paid tier to my newsletter, like a monthly reoccurring fee and get rid of the ads on this newsletter.

Ole [00:16:58]: And this is something I'm actually super excited about because I'm not sure if it's going to work, but it feels like fun to do it, to go more in depth. Do like a $20 a month subscription. And if my math checks out, sometimes it doesn't. But in my head I'm like, I have 21,000 subscribers. So I think when I launched, I have probably about 23, maybe 24 if it goes right. And if I convert like 2%, that's already 450 people. And if I charge them $20 a month, that's like almost ten k a month. Wow, subscription revenue, that's good.

Ole [00:17:32]: I think that's a decent, yeah, this was still like, I pretended to know the exact number, but around ten k. This is like a cool Rio cabin revenue stream because if you do course launch, it's always like these big events, right? And then it's like nothing basically. So my plan is to keep the course open. I'm also writing an educational email course right now. So just to summarize, I'll have the education email course, a five day for free email course that will sell you on the course. And if someone goes into the course for free, maybe some people will buy. This will bring in some sales over time. Then I also plug the newsletter, the product in my newsletter at the bottom, like Justin Welch does.

Ole [00:18:12]: So also every week, twice a week, so people would see it. I'll add the paid newsletter subscription model, which hopefully will bring in around eight to ten k a month. And I'm also doing some consulting, but it's not that I don't like it, but I don't like if someone can tell me when to work, if that makes sense. I just really don't like it. Every time I have the calls, I really enjoy the calls and I think it's also really nice. But honestly, I'd rather get on the call with someone just for chatting with them than charging them and being like, oh, now I have to deliver. And also now I have to be there because you booked my time. So I feel like I'd rather do it for free and they help me with something than like, oh, here's my consulting booking link.

Ole [00:18:58]: I don't know, I don't like it that much.

Akta [00:18:59]: Yeah, no, I like how diversified all of that is and how you're also planning ahead. So I feel like there's a lot to dig in there. Let's start with the digital product. How did you decide what was the right. Digital product for your audience.

Ole [00:19:15]: I've done a lot of research, so if you want to launch a digital product, don't underestimate how many people you should talk to. Most people I think talk to maybe five. And I believe you should talk to like 40 or 50 and also maybe get type forms in. Just asking about what are people struggling with? How do they talk about their problems? What did they spend money on before, which kind of products? What did they miss in those products? So all these kind of classic market research questions, they helped me a lot to find something. I think if I had more time until launch, I would have done like a beta sale to see are actually sales coming in? Because I think if you do this, it's even better to validate. But I skipped this. I just opened a waitlist, but I also saw the waitlist, it filled up so fast. And then I was like, okay, I wasn't sure if I would sell like thought, okay, if it goes really well, I'm going to sell like 40.

Ole [00:20:11]: Or was like, okay, 50K would be crazy. But yeah, then once you've launched a product, it's so much easier, right. Because then, you know, there's product market fit and you can build around that product. But for the first one, it's really about listening to people without projecting your own ideas about what they need on them. That's what most people, I think, get wrong about this.

Akta [00:20:33]: Yeah. So did you jump onto calls with members of your audience?

Ole [00:20:37]: Yes, a lot of them. I offer them like a ten or 15 minutes free consulting.

Akta [00:20:44]: Oh, wow. Okay.

Ole [00:20:45]: As an incentive. And I opened, I think, like 20 spots on one day. And because I messed it up the calendly, I somehow always mess up the calendar.

Akta [00:20:54]:I hate you.

Ole [00:20:56]: And then next day I had like 20 bookings on one day. I was like, oh, wow, get on 20 calls in a row.

Akta [00:21:02]: Oh, my goodness.

Ole [00:21:03]: Yeah, that's intense. That was kind of hard. I would never do this again like this, but it already gave me a good idea. Also, I also asked a lot about price point and what people would pay. And interestingly, I was more concerned about being too pricey when I launched the product. But this was like the only downside because after speaking to those people, I was super unclear about how much I wanted to pay. So I was like, okay, I'm just going to go more for the lower end of what I think. And I think I could have gone way higher with the price.

Ole [00:21:33]: But it's okay for me because I also rather over deliver on the first product and just build the goodwill and trust and earn less. It's okay. I'm not here to maximize every dollar, but that was interesting. Pricing is one of the hard things to understand in research for me.

Akta [00:21:50]: Definitely. I think that's a difficult thing for most people, whether it's products or sponsorships or anything. Is there anything that you learned from that launch that you're going to take with you for future launches?

Ole [00:22:03]: All the stuff that can go wrong will go wrong, that's for sure. So especially on my second launch, like thrive card, my main checkout where people can purchase. After they clicked on the landing page, it just went down. They had like server issues. When I just launched my course at my peak time, I was like, fuck, I should have prepared a second checkout. Just like, to swap the links and have one that's running. So that's something I definitely learned. Like, if you have one solution that works, you have none, because if it goes down, you're fucked.

Ole [00:22:33]: So that was the first one for me. Then. Don't never trust PayPal. Like, PayPal froze 35,000 euros and I don't know when I can get them. Just out of nowhere, for no reason. There's another thing I learned, never use PayPal. They suck. And they will just take your money and tell you you're going to get it in 180 days.

Ole [00:22:52]: Yeah. So these things is more on the fuck up side. But also I learned a lot about if you have a product that people want, you can do whatever the fuck you want. I think that's very important to understand. If you get the product part right, you can mess up basically everything else because people will still want to buy your product. If you have a product that has decent demand, if you start to do little things wrong, maybe they will fall off. I don't need it anyway. But I think my main takeaway was I really tried to create a product that people want and that really talk to their needs.

Ole [00:23:27]: And if you get this right, it's not hard to sell it because people, they are in your dms. Like, I want it. I will pay you more if you open the shop again one year. That's crazy to think about, but yeah, that was one of my major takeaways for me. Never think that you understand what someone wants until they really tell you what they want. And then sometimes they tell you what they want, but what they actually need is against something. Understanding the psychology of people who might purchase your product is the most important part in my eyes.

Akta [00:24:01]: Yeah, no, that's a good lesson to learn from. And I think it's amazing that you had such a successful launch, but there's still things to take away and learn from. I want to talk about sponsorships as well. I know you said that you don't want to place as much of an emphasis on it, but I think two K consistently is really good. And a lot of our listeners obviously do quite a lot of sponsorships, but might not have as consistent of an income with it. So how do you keep it so consistent where you're kind of making the same amount each month? How are you filling up these spots?

Ole [00:24:32]: The honest answer is I get inbound. I think I'm in a niche that's pretty popular. And also, I think really showing people that you deliver on what you say also with the product. I think selling the product also helps me on ad sales because people see all this. He's telling you I'm going to launch a product, he's doing it. He's delivering value, like on every different channel. I'm delivering you what I tell you or more. And I think that's important for partners to see that you're not like one of these half-assing everything.

Ole [00:25:04]: And also showing that my audience is an audience that will buy, that's also very helpful. So I think if you have any chances of showing that people in your audience have money, are willing to spend money and trust you with that money, that's great for you, for sponsors because it really improves your leverage to them. Because you're like, my audience paid me, I don't know, month. I'm pretty sure they could also potentially be customers of yours. So that's also very helpful, I think, to just try to do what you say and always keep yourself up to a high standard in product.

Akta [00:25:41]: Yeah, definitely. And how are you managing sponsorships alongside creating your own content, creating products, and also planning ahead as well? I just feel like you're managing a lot of things. How are you doing?

Ole [00:25:55]: I'm doing way too much. So I'm actually thinking about hiring someone who can do the, I had the lucky shot of someone bought like one and a half month of ads with me once. Oh, wow. Like one month while my product was launching and also while my product was launching. I also didn't have any ads. But yeah, it's a lot of work. So best, I think if you're into the ads model, it's really about finding some strong partners that you'll have, like a long term relationship with. Because if you only have a lot of churn in terms of every sponsor is just one off.

Ole [00:26:30]: It's annoying. I also changed my offering to only offering at least four ad spots like for two weeks. Because if you only have one ad spot and it's only one spot, you have to do the outreach, you have to talk with them about the ad copy, you have to edit the ad copy, you have to do it in the US. So there's so much work and then it's like true, $200. Sometimes it's so much work it's not even worth it. So finding stronger partners that have more of a long-term outlook, I think that's very key for running ads.

Akta [00:27:02]: That's a really good idea actually. I like that. And how did you go about pricing ads? Like do you have set rates or do you negotiate with partners?

Ole [00:27:10]: Yeah, so honestly I just had a look at most of AI newsletters and just kind of copied their CPM model.

Akta [00:27:16]: Yeah.

Ole [00:27:17]: So I knew my open rate, I know my click rates and I never charged a crazy high CPM. Just in the beginning was like, okay, I want to get some revenue in from the new setter. But yeah, I think with ads the problem is, I don't know, it just gives me some kind of anxiety. Oh my God, what if no one clicks the ad and it feels shitty? So if it's my own stuff, it's like okay, then I don't sell anything.

Akta [00:27:40]: Yeah, true.

Ole [00:27:41]: And I try to make it better, but if it's like a third party that paid for the. I know it's not only my, it's not my fault if my audience doesn't buy it, right? But I still feel bad somehow. If someone wants an ad and it gets like 90 clicks and no one purchased them, like, oh shit, that's not good. I personally don't enjoy running ads as much, but maybe I will again add a bigger size of the audience. So that's also something to keep in mind. Right? If you have like 100K list, the game feels different in terms of ads. You should employ someone to run your ads and then it's just like another revenue stream you can create. But for me personally, I think going paid subscription on a newsletter plus building my own products feels like a more owned and for me like a better way to monetize.

Akta [00:28:31]: Yeah. And how are you going about building a paid newsletter? So what's your thought process been so far about making sure that you're going to deliver on value and what that structure of the newsletter is going to be and how it will differ from your free newsletter? Talk me through what's going on right now.

Ole [00:28:46]: So right now the plan is that right now I'm sending two editions that have the same length and I will change it that the one on Saturday will be longer, around 50% longer. But it will also add other elements. So the first part is longer, it's more in depth, it's more geared towards a very specific business problem. And then it will also give you access to a monthly master class. So it's more about, okay, you are serious about using AI for your business, but you will also get these extra experiences. So you pay more, but you have this interactive element. I might also add some kind of discounted products, so maybe I'll do some smaller products. And you can say if you buy the monthly subscription, you'll also get this product for free.

Ole [00:29:30]: So I'm trying to build like a product suite. But yeah, mainly it's about you get basically more value, more in depth stuff. Plus you also get expert advice by leading people in the field. We are in like for $20 a month.

Akta [00:29:48]: How did you decide that price?

Ole [00:29:50]: I looked at some other newsletters and I felt like it's a price that feels good to me. I think it could be higher potentially, but it feels like a good starting price, $20 a month. I think it's an amazing steal, to be honest, for $20, because the potential outcome of if you do everything you learn for $20 is crazy.

Akta [00:30:10]: Yeah.

Ole [00:30:11]: So talking about that, it might need to be higher even.

Akta [00:30:16]: And then I feel like we have to end the call with talking about AI and being a solopreneur, since that's your area of expertise. So I want to talk about being a solopreneur first because I feel like a lot of creators think that they need to hire in order to be like a legit business or in order to scale and grow their business. What do you think the benefits of being a solopreneur are? And is that something that some creators should consider?

Ole [00:30:38]: I think you can be a solopreneur but still hire, even if that sounds not like as, how do you say it, intuitive. I think you can work with freelance. I work with people as well. But for me it's like a difference to hiring like, a complete team around you. But for some part, I will get like a virtual assistant or with some stuff, like to build parts of the email stuff or get someone else will help me with it. So I want to be clear about I don't do 100% on my own, and I think that's also a wrong way to look at it. But also, you don't have to be any of the extremes, I would say. And the solopreneur for me is more about I basically have no hierarchy with anything.

Ole [00:31:18]: So I'm like the main part of the whole business, but I'm also an AI and about being more optimized and efficient. So building processes, they can also include other people. I think that's totally fine. And I think it's not like against the religion of solopreneurs to be like, oh, I use a freelancer or whatever, because in the end you want to run the business and not let the business run you. In a way, I think that's very important to find ways to keep good health, have fun while you run the business. Because in the end, if you run a business and it's not fun for you and it's just like a prison, it's not a business, it's just a job. And you're not even self employed in a way, you're just employed by your own boss being yourself. Right?

Akta [00:32:02]: True. And what about AI tools and techniques that have helped you to grow the business and supported you with what you wanted your business to look like?

Ole [00:32:13]: Yeah. So I mainly also in my content, use Chat GPT and Cloud, that's like the main. And honestly, I use Chat GPT so much just in regular business content, like creating my offers, giving me advice on stuff. I just use it as a coach in a way. And that's been really helpful to me, especially if you're alone, if you don't have like a sparring partner. I also talk to a lot of people, so also advice, talk to a lot of people every day, talk to people that are in a similar situation or maybe one step ahead or maybe even sometimes one step behind you, because if you're working alone, it can be very lonely. So I think it's so important to keep in touch with people. But that being said, chat GBT is also amazing at doing that.

Ole [00:32:57]: So if you follow my newsletter, I share a lot of these workflows that I use for everything from creating your offer, your pricing, your social media strategy. So it's an only talk. I also use this stuff, so it's mainly ChatGPT. I use some AI note taking stuff as well that I like a lot, also for voice notes. So it's more like transcripts, it's more like stuff that's, I don't know, little notetaking stuff, but it's mainly ChatGPT. And Cloud also use mid journey. It's like the classic stuff I use. I don't use anything crazy, anything fancy.

Ole [00:33:32]: And I think most people get it wrong that they have to use a thousand tools, but it's more about just really understanding one or two. That's totally sufficient.

Akta [00:33:41]: No, that's great. And I like how you mentioned tools, but also connecting with real people. I think that's quite refreshing to hear from an AI guy. So that was really nice. I'm going to end with a quick fire round now, so I'm going to ask you five questions and you can just answer with the first thing that comes to mind. So first question being what's your favorite thing about being a creator?

Ole [00:34:02]: The connection to other people. Like talking to like minded people. I love it.

Akta [00:34:05]: What's one thing that gives you the most inspiration for what you're creating?

Ole [00:34:09]: Taking a walk, just walking and thinking. Like I really create in bursts and I think I'm just a creative person. I did music before and I just love to create stuff. And for me it's really about expression. It's not about I want to create just only to create clicks or something. I just love creating stuff.

Akta [00:34:28]:Yeah, no, that's so nice. What's one tool that helps you as a creator?

Ole [00:34:33]:I guess ChatGPT is pretty amazing for that.

Akta [00:34:35]: Yeah, definitely. And what's one thing that helps you with your creator work life balance?

Ole [00:34:41]: I think really kind of restricting yourself on your own social media use. That's helpful if it works out. I'm always trying to do that. So being very intentional about your time off, leaving your phone at home, stuff like that, that's what you need.

Akta [00:34:56]: Yeah, that's good advice. And what's one piece of advice that you'd give to other creators?

Ole [00:35:02]: Don't be scared to reach out. Basically everything in my life happened because I reached out to someone and most people want to connect. And in the end, most people are lonely when they create on social media. So what they basically lack in general is connection. So if you don't connect with them and try to sell them your stuff, you can do this later. Right. But being genuinely interested in someone and searching for connection and conversation is the only thing you need.

Akta [00:35:28]: Yeah, I think that's such a nice way to end the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on air. I feel like this was such a great conversation. It's really, it's so nice to hear how far you've come and where you plan to go and your thought process behind all of that. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Ole [00:35:43]: Yeah, thank you for having me. It was a lot of fun for me.

Akta [00:35:45]:You can find Ola on Twitter, LinkedIn and his newsletter, AI solopreneur. If you're a creator and you do sponsorships, check out Passionfroot. We help you to streamline the entire workflow. I'll see you in the next one.

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