The Successful Solopreneur
Welcome to The Successful Solopreneur podcast—a show created for everyday change makers ready to break free from the 9-to-5 grind and build a life on their own terms. I built my business from scratch, and I know what it takes to hit your first $100k. This podcast is your go-to resource if you’re tired of living by someone else’s rules and are eager to create work that fuels your passion, supports your family, and transforms lives.
Every week, we’ll dive into real strategies, share inspiring stories, and have candid conversations about overcoming self-sabotage, ditching trends, and embracing your unique gifts. We’ll explore how to live by the philosophy of “Less but Better”—focusing on what truly matters and building momentum with small, consistent wins. You’ll hear from guests who have mastered the art of discipline, purpose, and authenticity, and you’ll get actionable tips you can implement immediately.
If you’re ready to reclaim your power, prioritize values over impressions, and finally start living a life that makes you and your family proud, you’re in the right place. Tune in, feel heard, and let’s unlock your unfair advantage together—because your journey to success is one conversation away.
The Successful Solopreneur
My Mother’s Final Words: A Lesson About Work
Some truths hit hardest when whispered from the edge of mortality. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer just six months before her long-awaited retirement, everything changed. After 50 loyal years working at the same grocery store—a job she endured rather than enjoyed—her plans for finally experiencing life's joys were replaced with hospital visits and treatments.
What haunts me most aren't the memories of her illness, but our raw conversations about regret. Despite raising two children with unwavering dedication and integrity, my mother couldn't shake the remorse of abandoning her remarkable artistic talents and dreams. She was an award-winning painter and gifted singer who set these passions aside because she saw no path to supporting her family through them. With profound clarity that only comes when time grows short, she urged me: "Never quit chasing your dreams. Never stop creating the life you're proud of."
This powerful legacy drives my mission today. Through my background in transformational psychology and decade building my coaching practice, I've developed frameworks that help solopreneurs overcome the very obstacles that derailed my mother's dreams—and my own for too long. While entrepreneurship isn't easy, creating fulfilling, purpose-driven work has never been more possible than it is today. I refuse to let my struggles be in vain, and I'm committed to sharing every tool and breakthrough that can accelerate your journey toward meaningful success. My deepest hope is that you'll never face the pain of looking back on abandoned dreams when it's too late to pursue them. Share your questions, continue this journey with me, and remember: this precious life is too short to spend doing work you hate.
Connect with Me
IG: @matthewpaetz
Click Here to Unlock Your Unfair Advantage
why is it so important to become a successful solopreneur? Because life is way too short and way too precious to spend it doing work that you hate. Now don't get me wrong. I completely understand that we all have to make a living, pay our bills, take care of our responsibilities, and most of us are doing that or have to do that at the moment, doing jobs that we can't hate going to. But the truth is, in today's world, in our modern world, becoming a successful solopreneur is so much easier and far more possible than it has ever been before. Now, that doesn't mean it is easy, that doesn't mean it's not going to come without hardships and struggles and not going to take a lot longer than you would like. But the truth is is it's easier and more possible than it's ever been before. And you know, recently I was sitting down and journaling about why this is so important to me and why do I want to put myself out here and have these conversations and, you know, potentially, you know trigger people or, you know, create a little conflict or a little struggle. It's because of this.
Speaker 1:So my mother passed away a little over two years ago now. She passed away from colon cancer. We had known for a couple of years after she was diagnosed that this was going to be the likely outcome. The one thing that we had that we were acutely aware of was that we only had so much time left and we got to decide how we were going to spend it. Now, mind you, my mom worked um 50 years for the same company. She worked for a grocery store uh called Kroger uh, for 50 years, since she was 17 years old, and she did so honorably, loyally, to take care of my sister and I to see to it that we had everything that she didn't. We had the opportunities that she did not growing up, and my mother succeeded at that at a very high level, but she did so working a job that she hated six, oftentimes seven, days a week, you know, 50, 60 hours at a time to be the sole breadwinner for two children.
Speaker 1:And in the final weeks of my mom's life, she was really reflecting on a lot of things. One of them was that her goals after retirement was to be able to travel more and live her life and finally experience the things that she wanted to experience. And it was literally six months to the day that she was going to retire that she was diagnosed and what was going to be the time of her life became a fight for her life. You know, from the day that she retired she spent the majority of that time going to and from hospitals and doctors and you know in and out of chemo treatments and you know literally some of the majority of her travel at that time was to other states to be in trials, in trials trying to find a cure or anything that would prolong her life and the quality of her life. And when the time came that we knew that there were no more trials and we knew that the chances of her making a recovery was essentially coming to an end, you know my mother and I started to have really honest conversations we always had, but you know, more specifically around the experience she was having, knowing that she was coming to the end of her life, and I'll never forget one day when mom was sharing with me. You know all the things that she was really proud of. You know raising both of us kids.
Speaker 1:You know living a life that she was of integrity, was honorable, was always taking care of her responsibilities and doing the best of her abilities to make sure that everyone that she loved, knew it, but then she started to share her regrets, knew it, but then she started to share her regrets and, although there wasn't many, thank goodness, the regrets that she just couldn't shake as she was looking back on her life was that she abandoned her dreams, she abandoned her desires, she abandoned her interest for the sake of, you know, taking care of us and committing to a job to pay the bills. She was a singer. I learned she was a phenomenal artist, which I'd known you her paintings and come to find out she'd won many awards in high school and you know, city awards and county and even state, if I'm not mistaken for her art. But she abandoned it because, you know, she didn't know how to turn that into something that her family could depend on and there was no one in her life that had done so on their own either. So she really had no examples. Um, and, looking back, she told me to never quit chasing my dreams and never quit doing whatever it takes to create the life that I'm proud of. Um, and and and it's my mother's life that really motivates me to do this, and over the last 10 years, you may know, I've been building my own coaching practice.
Speaker 1:My background is in transformational psychology. I've been helping people, you know, work through things like self-sabotage and trauma and self-limiting beliefs and all these things for many years. But the truth is I've been struggling with my own this entire time and you know the reason why this is so important to me is because I absolutely refuse to live a life where I didn't pursue the things that I wanted, even if they didn't work out. I absolutely refuse to allow my struggles to be in vain, be in vain, and I absolutely refuse to not share the lessons and the breakthroughs and the tools and the literal how to's that I have learned in this 10 year process with you, because my intention intention is that it doesn't take you as long as it had, as it took me, to become your definition of success, and it's my mission to help you create a business that fulfills you, that is driven by purpose, that transforms your pain into something more meaningful and become something that your family can depend on and that you will be proud of. So my why is very simple it's because we only get one life and I believe to my core that this life is too precious to spend the majority of it doing work that you hate.
Speaker 1:I hope this resonates and, if it does, I encourage you to continue to listen to these episodes, share your feedback, send in your questions. We're going to make these episodes as impactful and relevant to you and your journey as we possibly can. And just know that I'm committed because I actually give a damn and I've witnessed firsthand what it looks like to regret the things you didn't do when you no longer have the chance to do them, and it's my mission that you never experience that yourself. So until next episode, have a powerful day and I look forward to seeing you on the other side of your definition of success.