Solo Success Stories Edition #9
Featuring: Karli Petrovic
The Solopreneur Stack helps solo-business people become (and remain) successful and sustainable through quick tips, in-depth guidance and personal experience stories. Become a paid subscriber for just £5.99 a month and unlock every article and resource in our archive.
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
!
My joke about being a solopreneur is that I’m unhireable and that’s how I ended up here, although that’s not entirely true. As a freelance writer, tarot reader and intuitive coach, I’m often hired by clients who need a copywriter, journalist and/or answers to life’s deepest questions.
But the big corporations with the 401ks and health insurance and unlimited PTO? I’m a bit too feral for their liking. I’ve learned to make peace with this fact, to see it as an incredible blessing. Because what I know, even if they don’t, is that building my own business is far more challenging, freeing and ultimately rewarding than any corporate gig could ever be.
Besides, I could never thrive in a place where someone else was constantly telling me what to do. A thing I could never understand about working for other people is that they’ll often hire you to do a job, only to micromanage every aspect of how you do it. That was my experience when I worked for magazines, nonprofits and tech companies, at least. If I’d had a better go of it, I might have taken a different path.
Perhaps somewhere in another timeline, I’m an office girl in a pencil skirt who eats salad in the break room.
In this reality, however, my subpar forays into traditional employment pushed me to bet on myself. I’d always felt that I had a better sense of what should be done than the person in charge, and solopreneurship was an opportunity to prove it. I simply had to take the leap.
Fortunately, I’d been unknowingly setting the stage for self-employment throughout my time as a nine-to-fiver. Each time I parted ways with an employer, I did so on good terms, opening the door for contract work and side projects that would pad my (depressingly slim) staff writer income.
After a year-long contract with Intel where I was tasked with all the stresses and responsibilities of being a “Blue Badge” employee without any of the benefits (contractors aren’t even entitled to free coffee when they come into the office—a rule I happily ignored), I decided to start working for myself, for real this time.
The amount of hustle required to go from cushy W2 employment to 1099 sole proprietor and thrive was significant. I maintained my current projects and reached out to see if more work was available. I updated my LinkedIn profile furiously and created a simple online portfolio to showcase my work. At the same time, I took a yoga teacher training, which offered me a chance to teach classes to supplement my income. Soon, I was teaching five or more classes per week, running all over Portland, Oregon to lead participants through an endless series of poses set to music.
This continued for years until my husband and I moved to Thailand on a whim (a story for another time).
Solopreneuring meant I could conceivably work from anywhere, so we decided to put that hypothetical through a rigorous, half-a-world-away sort of test. Digital nomading went well. Even when the pandemic hit, I maintained a steady stream of writing projects and taught virtual yoga classes. The time difference meant that I often had plenty extra on my hands, so I picked up an interest I’d mostly abandoned back in high school: tarot reading. I practiced on my friends and family, offering free readings that resonated with them on a deep level.
My husband, who got stuck in India when the lockdowns happened (another story for another time), flew back to the States before me and started on building out a camper van that would take us on our next series of adventures. My return to the U.S. coincided with my most lucrative year to date and quite a bit of burnout to boot. Apparently, I hadn’t totally freed myself from the shackles of corporate America because I was still spending too much time on too many low-vibe projects only to earn too little as a result. Another shift was coming. This time, I decided to put my happiness before everything else, including my guaranteed ability to pay the bills.
I quit most of my writing gigs with my husband’s blessing and decided to go all in on tarot. I offered readings and intuitive coaching for creatives, two services that allowed me to practice what I love most in the world: Telling other people what to do. There were pros and cons to this endeavor. It certainly brought me a lot of joy, and I built up a solid list of clients, but it wasn’t a sustainable enough to become a truly full-time gig.
Simultaneously, I was also starting to miss the writing part of my career, although the relationship between us had become slightly complicated. I needed to wordsmith to feel like my full self, but I didn’t want to continue writing about mind-numbing topics like soil regeneration and chemical crop inputs. I needed projects that filled my soul. This would require some additional effort, but I was willing to take on new responsibilities. I’ve always been one of those people who flourishes under the pressure of doing a million things at once.
The solution to the self-imposed problem of wanting to write more but only if it was the right kind of writing was simple. I would create my own newsletter, one that allowed me to craft content around whatever I wanted. I was lounging in the bathtub very pregnant when the idea came through. It was so spot on I laughed out loud. I would write about sex. Now, THAT was a topic I could get it up for. Yes, Misstrix was officially born.
As soon as I began this project, something magical happened. Investing in my own happiness created the space for my solopreneur journey to take yet another turn. I started to attract the types of writing projects I’d wanted all along.
Suddenly, I was writing copy for world-renowned psychic James Van Praagh and other leaders in the spiritual space. My tarot business gained new clients. I recommitted to a novel I’d started writing before I had my daughter. Everything I’d wanted for my career began coming to fruition, and that’s where I am today. There are ups and downs, of course, but most of what I’m doing is in alignment with what I set out to do when I finally bid adieu to corporate America so long ago.
My best advice to those who hear the call of solopreneurship deep in their veins is to know who you are and what you want. Be confident about your strengths, weaknesses and what you have to offer. Then, think long and hard about whether this is the right path for you. It’s not for everyone.
You should also know that going back to your old way of working might be harder than you anticipate and not because you’ve gotten too used to hustling in your pajamas. After I’d worked for myself for many years, that’s when I began to realize that I’d essentially become unhireable. Any time I got it in my head that I’d prefer a little bit of stability and the opportunity to work on a team, potential employers were immediately suspicious of my intentions.
From my perspective, I’d always worked harder trying to make it on my own—and usually not by choice.
Being a solopreneur simply required me to handle all the jobs myself. The balancing act was hard, yes, but the benefits were huge. Solopreneurship made me an amazing multitasker, efficient and nimble. It also taught me how to work with basically anyone, from the easy low-key clients who leave you to do your thing to the difficult ones whose chaos makes you want to walk straight into the ocean, never to return.
I felt my years as a solopreneur were a huge asset to companies. They didn’t see it that way. They seemed to prefer hiring the same people with the same experiences time and time again—the definition of insanity. “Why would you quit the freedom of self-employment to work for us?” they’d inevitably ask.
Why indeed. The message from the universe was clear: I was always meant to be my own boss. These days, I embrace it. I’m fiercely protective of my joy, and my goal is to continue to prioritize it. I’m feral, after all. And if you’re still reading this, I’d be willing to bet that you are, too.
Thanks Karli!
Interesting thoughts from others:
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The Top 5 Most Exciting New Features on Substack (and How to Maximize Their Benefits) by
How This Solopreneur Has Made $600,000 in 3 Years From Her Coaching Business by Scott Stockdale
The Paperless Solopreneur: Digital Note-Taking for Remote Work by Simon Theakston
5 Subtle Signs You’re a Solopreneur in Disguise by Tim J. Schroeder
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Loved reading this! It was inspiring to hear about your journey, Karli 🫶🏻✨