Hey {{first_name | there}},

I talk to a lot of folks who are dreaming about starting a business. I also talk to a lot of folks who are doing the business and are thinking, “What the heck?!”

And regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, you are in for a treat today, {{first_name | friend}}.

Ricardo Brito and I have been circling each other for the better part of a year. First, as LinkedIn acquaintances, then via a mutual friend’s Slack community, and then the stars finally aligned for us to connect in real time via The Co-Promotion Club. We had such an amazing conversation during our first connection, I knew y’all needed to know him, too.

Ricardo Brito is a business strategist for first-time solopreneurs. He partners with people to transform their skills and experience into a sustainable solo business. And today he’s sharing his wisdom (and some hot takes!) with Brand Burnout readers.

Enjoy!

Not sure, but because I know you love dogs, I would be a mix of the following breeds. Part of it is like a street stray dog. Resourceful, adaptable, figuring things out with what’s available, and not waiting for perfect conditions.

At the same time, it has the discipline and reliability of a German shepherd, with its structure, responsibility, and a strong sense of purpose behind the work.

And then there’s a bit of beagle energy in there. Playful, pretty goofy, and not taking itself too seriously.

For me, the jump from dreaming to doing is always about action, action, action!

I get inspired quickly, I have way too many ideas, but I’m not someone who likes to stay in my head for too long. I need to build, test, and see things in the real world.

I’ve always relied on fast feedback loops and not letting my mind get bored. I’m neurodivergent, with ADHD, so that explains it too. Trying things, seeing what works, adjusting, and moving again. That made the transition into building my own business feel quite natural, because it was never just about having an idea. It was about creating something actually real and learning from it.

That’s also how I work with others. A big part of my role is helping people translate intentions and ideas into concrete steps, real experiments, and outcomes they can actually react to.

If this resonates, I’ve got a free 10-day email course that walks through the early steps in a very practical way.

I knew this version was the better fit because it allowed me to use almost everything I already had: my experience, my skills, my network, and the kind of knowledge you only build over many years. From a very pragmatic point of view, the leverage was simply much higher.

Compared to something like opening a restaurant, the startup costs were low, the risks were manageable, and the learning curve wasn’t starting from zero. That matters if you actually want the business to survive and grow.

On a more philosophical level, I don’t see the meatball business and what I do now as different worlds. Both felt meaningful to me. One would allow me to make people happy through their taste, the other to achieve independence, two things I really care about. The difference was asking myself a hard question: if this really matters, where do I have the best chance of making it work? Looking at leverage, risk, and sustainability made the answer very clear.

This is something I encourage people to do about their first business: start where you have the most leverage, even if this is not the final stop.

I wrote more about this transition in my book, The (Slightly Chaotic but Totally Worth It) Adventure of Becoming a Solopreneur.

This is a very personal question, and I don’t think there’s a single right answer.

In my case, I am the product. People work with me for my experience and perspective, but also for how I think, how I communicate, and the kind of relationship we’ll have. Because of that, it feels important to show up as myself and not hide behind a generic brand.

That doesn’t mean everyone has to do it in the same way or to the same extent. The level of visibility should match the role you play in the business. If you are the product, like many solopreneurs are, then putting yourself out there is part of building trust. People don’t just buy expertise; they buy the person behind it and who they will work with.

Even in businesses where there’s more distance between the founder and the brand, trust still comes through people. At some point, you interact with a human being, and that interaction heavily shapes whether you trust the business or not.

Especially in a more anonymous and faceless world, showing up as a real person becomes a differentiator. For me, it boils down to trust and the role that you have in creating it and providing it.

This comes up a lot in my work, especially with strategists and creatives. Many people say, “I could have done this myself.” And they’re right. I could have done it myself, too.

The problem is that trying to do everything alone ended up costing me much more time and money, and at one point, it almost cost me the business. Not because I lacked skills, but because I lacked clarity at the moments where it mattered most. I didn’t have the right questions, the outside perspective, or someone to challenge my assumptions.

When you’re building a solo business, it’s very hard to think objectively. Your business is tied to your identity, your fears, and your hopes. That emotional attachment shapes decisions, priorities, and investments in ways you often don’t see yourself.

Having someone external to help you decide what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why it matters can make a huge difference. It prevents you from spending time, energy, money, and health on things that don’t actually move the business forward, and helps you focus on what does.

I often compare it to medicine. You can invest early in prevention, or you can pay much more later to fix things that went wrong. Most people think they’re saving money by not getting help, but in practice, it usually costs them more.

This is also the core of what I do in a Business Sanity Check, where we pressure-test audience, offer, and next steps.

My favourite hot topic! I have had some heated discussions, especially with freelancers, to whom some of them, solopreneur means an overglorified freelancer coming to steal their market share.

From a legal or tax perspective, none of these labels really matters; they’re all essentially the same, and this whole discussion is in our heads.

Where I do see a difference is in mindset, not status. These terms often show me how someone thinks about their work and the kind of services they offer.

What I often see with freelancers is a focus on selling skills and time. You’re hired as hands for hire. That can work, but it usually comes with clear limits around leverage, pricing, and sustainability. Some freelancers sell outcomes and productized services, but in my experience, they’re still the exception rather than the rule, and they tend to transition into solopreneurship.

Solopreneurs, on the other hand, tend to think like business owners from day zero. They focus on outcomes, package their services, make decisions, and run the business based on building something sustainable rather than just staying billable.

When it comes to fractional, consultant, and similar terms, I relate that much more with the types of services and products that, as a solopreneur, you can offer.

Personally, I use the term solopreneur because it sets different expectations for how the business is run. But in the end, the label matters less than how you approach your work. The real distinction is whether you see yourself as trading time for money, or as building a business that can grow beyond that.

Oh! I think you also see a lot of what I’m about to say, Jamie.

The biggest hurdle I see is choosing which problems to solve and, more importantly, for whom. Many solopreneurs struggle with client clarity and who they actually help!

On one side, people often feel they know their clients very well, but when you look closer, the definition is still too vague to be useful in positioning the business, creating value, and developing services. On the other side, there’s the opposite problem: serving too many types of clients at once. The thinking is usually, “My skills can help many people, so why narrow it down?”

The issue is that this approach backfires. The broader the audience, the harder it becomes for anyone to clearly understand what you do and why they should work with you. That means… No clients.

What’s underneath this is often a mix of two things: overestimating how well you actually understand your clients, and financial anxiety around focusing too much and leaving money on the table.

The way through it is not by committing forever, but by testing. Pick a very specific type of client, a clear problem, and a focused offer, and try it in the real world. I’ve seen many people struggle for months without traction, and then convert quickly once they make this shift. Those early results create the confidence needed to keep going.

There’s a lot of bad advice out there, but a few of my favourite pet peeves are these.

The first one is passive income. There’s nothing passive about building a “passive-income” business, especially in the early years. Closely related to that is the idea that you should start selling digital products or tools right away. If you have no audience, no reputation, and no distribution, it doesn’t matter how good the product is. People don’t buy from someone they don’t know.

Another one I’m tired of seeing is the obsession with high-ticket clients. High-ticket offers can work, but if there’s no clear path for people to get there, you don’t really have a business. In most cases, that level of trust takes time to build, and no clever pricing strategy will help you with that.

And finally, the idea that starting your own business means working less. Maybe one day, when the business is stable and well-structured. But in the first one or two years, it usually requires more work, not less. Pretending otherwise sets people up for frustration and disappointment.

Oh, that’s a great question! I can totally imagine you as a spin instructor. You must have been a super fun instructor!

Honestly, I’m not a karaoke person at all. The one time I tried it, I failed miserably. I’ll tell that story one day, because it involves a half-empty dodgy dive bar, a way too sexy song, one tequila too much, and a very humbling experience.

But if I think about a song that really is my go-to while I work, it’s War Pigs by Black Sabbath. It’s the one I go back to when things get hard, and I need to refocus, push through, and move forward. It’s very much a “fuck this, let’s do it” kind of song.

To soak in my thinking and ideas, the best place to start is my newsletter, Burning Thoughts. That’s where I share how I think about building a solo business, along with illustrated cartoons. It’s also proudly AI-free, so I can actually make use of my art degree.

If someone is interested in working together, the first step is a free 45-minute call. It’s a call to look at where they are, what they’re trying to build, and immediately get some free help.

From there, we take it step by step.

And thank you for reading,