Next-Level Thinking
To stand out, be strategic, not reactive.
Most solopreneurs think about what comes next, but not what comes after that.
I’ll grow a newsletter and start selling paid subscriptions.
I’ll build a product and start selling it to my subscribers.
I’ll create a LinkedIn profile, start writing and get clients.
I’ll buy an awesome program from a proven creator, listen to everything they say and start making $10-$20-$50K per month.
I’ll write and publish a book. Or get a book deal.
These are all worthy goals. And you’ll be happy when you achieve them.
But then you’ll face new problems:
The clients will annoy you or take too much of your time.
Newsletter subscribers will love your writing but won’t go paid. Or will go paid and unsubscribe when you hit a dry spell creatively.
The products you’ve built won’t sell. Or they will but you’ll find out you have to pump out new products all the time to sustain your business.
Taking action is put on a pedestal in solopreneurship.
It’s because action was restrained for decades.
Before the Internet, success demanded degrees, experience, and the approval of gatekeepers. You had to jump through hoops. Success took time, and it required permission, and everyone accepted that as normal.
Then the Internet came and the pendulum swung the other way. Just act. Just do it. You don’t need anyone’s permission and no one cares about degrees anymore. Fuck them! Be you, follow your passion and a pot of gold will fall into your lap.
(It did for a few people at the dawn of it all.)
But now, too many people have taken action. Too many people have just gone for it.
The market IS saturated.
The good news is that it’s saturated with people who have no idea what they’re doing. And you? Well, you’re reading Smarter Solopreneurs.
Which is why I want you to try Second-Order Thinking.
Second-Order Thinking is a mental model that forces you to consider the ripple effects of each decision.
It forces you to ask, “then what?”
Say you work with clients and you want to make more money. Say you double your rates, and your clients don’t mind. Now, you can work the same hours and make twice as much.
But then what? Would that be the ceiling?
In his recent email describing the growth of his solo business to $10 million,
said when he doubled his rates, he cut his client work in half. That way, his income stayed the same, but he had more time to think about scaling the business in new ways.Another example. Say you’ve published a digital product that did well.
I know from my conversations with subscribers that most creators will start thinking about what other products to put on the market; about creating a library of multiple offers—but “then what?”
How many new products can you pump out consistently? And is that what you want to be known for; pumping out digital products like a Chinese factory until you completely burn out?
What if, instead of thinking about how to create the next digital product, you think about improving the first one and also improving the marketing around it? That will lead to completely different results.
Every decision you make has consequences that go way beyond what most solopreneurs consider.
Yes, you can use AI.
Here’s a simple prompt.
“I’m a {type of solo business} and eventually, I want to {2-3 year goal}. Using Second-Order thinking, give me an exhaustive list of potential outcomes if I {insert the things you plan to do}. Tell me how that would affect my income levels, online reputation, day-to-day life, and what are the potential risks I may be overlooking.”
Stop “taking action.” Stop looking just 1-2 steps ahead. Start considering the environment, your competitors, your ultimate goals in life.
Start becoming an expert—either in your area of work, or in marketing, or both—even though it’ll take more time.
Because the success stories of people who just “took action” are a result of a different time.
Second-order thinking requires patience. Sometime you’ll realise you need to take a step back to take 10 steps forward later.
But for most of you, that’s the thing you’re missing. That’s the thing that will take you to the next level.
Stop taking blind action and start thinking more.
Till next time,
Maya
The solopreneur path reveals something deeper: blind action creates short-term wins, not long-term stability.
Even after achieving a 7-figure virtual business using LinkedIn early (2012), by 2023 the standard solopreneur model—signature stages, content machines, subscriber-driven products—had become overcrowded, fragile, and unsustainable.
My book generated hundreds of thousands in retainer revenue quickly, yet books, subscriber lists, and content products alone rarely provide consistent income.
What's worked best now is a different model for product.
The focus on second-order thinking rightly challenges this outdated model. When I got down to first-order principles it got interesting. That took from 2020 to early 2023 to really begin.
Real stability requires moving beyond quick-action thinking to deeper clarity:
1) Decide: Clarify your authentic long-term desire.
2) Know the Keys: Anchor in your vision and true mission.
3) Direction: Align naturally with those you're meant to serve.
4) Stories: Share your lived experience, not market-driven opinions.
5) Engagement: Prioritize genuine transformation over chasing visibility.
6) Experience: Create enduring value, not fleeting digital products.
7) Practices: Cultivate routines aligned with your true nature.
8) Community: Build authentic collaborations instead of transactional connections.
Your intuition about thoughtful decision-making over constant blind action is critical—and exactly what's needed for sustained success in today's saturated market.
As we trained AI to be our Creative Vision partner it became possible not only to avoid the bad data inputs that flooded the AI with marketing noise but to get real signal as a group project.
I find this pretty interesting and a different take on how to approach business
Doubling down on what's working as opposed to churning out more without thinking deeply