Solo Success Stories Edition #5
Featuring: Joanne Palmer
Hi there! 👋 My name’s David - I’m a writer and solopreneur from Northern Ireland. In this publication, you’ll find a growing archive of resources (created by myself and a collection of valued guests) for those hoping to become - or grow as - solopreneurs. While you’re here, you should also check out:
Thanks for stopping by! Now, back to the article.
Happy Friday, and welcome back to Solo Success Stories! Each week, I’ll feature a fellow solopreneur with an instructive story to share about how the pursuit of solo business success has shaped their life so far.
So without further ado, let’s hear from
!
I was born an entrepreneur. As a kid I made and sold pot holders door to door, staged elaborate backyard performances to which I charged admission and taught ice skating lessons during freezing Midwestern winters. Whenever I approached my Dad for money his default answer was, “Ideas generate money. Think of something and earn the money yourself.”
That advice served me well, I always had money in my pocket from one scheme or another, but as I grew older it also made it hard to work for other people. I’m a get-it-done kind of gal. I hate working in committees or building consensus because it takes too long. As Director of Communications for a small rural school district consensus and committees were the name of the game.
One day my boss, the superintendent of schools, placed her hand on my shoulder and said, “Really, Joanne, you need to be more serious.” I was shocked. I already felt like I worked in a morgue. Every day, before I entered the building I gave myself a pep talk, “I’m a single mom, I need the job and benefits so I have to make this job work”.
I thought I had suppressed my personality to the point where I barely recognized myself. I sat through three hour school board meetings completely bored but not cracking a smile. And yet, I’d failed. After her comment, I knew my job was over.
“What am I going to do?” I wailed to my mother. My mother did academic and personal counseling for the Dean of Students office at Northwestern University–the same school where I had earned a M.S. in Advertising.
“You need to make people laugh, you need to be a clown.”
I didn’t hesitate for a minute. I could laugh! Work for myself! No boss! A quick Google search turned up a five-day clown school in Lacrosse, Wi and off I went.
For five days I learned how to perform a few magic tricks, make balloon animals and face paint. At night we sat around in our dorm rooms having balloon jams and learning silly clown jokes we could use in our routines, “How do clowns cook their eggs? Funny side up!” “Why did the clown throw the clock out the window? To see if time flies.”
I returned home as Pickles the Clown and started doing kids birthday parties in parks, community centers and private homes. I worked hard and once got a $200 tip for actually pulling my pet rabbit out of a hat.
Despite my best efforts I realized that the population of the town I lived in,10,000 people, would not allow me to support myself full-time as a clown. I was pretty busy in the summer but almost no calls in the winter. I thought I’d done enough due diligence but it was clear I had not.
One thing I did know was I wasn’t going to work for anyone else. My town might not support a clown but as it was a resort town full of vacation homes it could support a property manager to oversee multi million dollar vacation homes.
The learning curve was steep but I was determined. I made presentations to real estate offices and did a post card mailing to addresses I got from the assessor’s office.
My first client got a rock bottom price in exchange for mowing his lawn, weeding his garden, supervising delivery of furniture and walking through his house in the winter to make sure the heat was on, the pipes hadn’t frozen and the driveway was plowed.
The first two years were lean but eventually the business grew enough to support me for 14 years.
Thanks Joanne!
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How The AI Solopreneur went from 0 to 100k on Twitter in 65 days (Using AI!) by
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