Leadership for Solopreneurs & Why You Still Need to Lead

Join us now at Integrity Leaders: Community membership and learning, for new leaders, learner-managers, first-time founders and solopreneurs (more info at the bottom!). First things first, it’s been a hectic 2025 so far and you’ll have noticed an unplanned radio silence from this newsletter. But it’s back now, thank you for your patience. You will also notice a paired back format; intended to make the newsletter a bit more readable, and (hopefully) more focused.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you when you go solo: You don’t leave leadership behind. You just internalise it.

Even if your “team” is a one-person band, or you, your Google Calendar, and a Nespresso machine you bought on sale, leadership is still there, lurking behind every choice, every deadline, every “do I take this client or not?”

Last month on Leading with Integrity, we heard from four brilliant solopreneurs:
Emma Friendship-Kilburn, Lee Lam, Daniel J Moore, and Vinnie Potestivo; all wildly different, but each proving the same thing:

Leadership still matters. Especially when it’s ‘just’ you.

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This edition of Leader Not A Boss will be digging into some home truths of running a business by yourself, what that means for your leadership, brand, and life. As a solopreneur myself, it’s a subject of massive interest to me, and there’s plenty of things I learned from these 4 conversations that I’m not always the best at in my business.

So I hope it will be useful for you as well. 😁 

🛠️ Life and Lessons as a Solopreneur

Let’s start with the real talk. Emma Friendship-Kilburn (EmmPower Sales & Marketing) nailed a universal truth: most solopreneurs start their business because they’re amazing at one thing - be it coaching, creating, consulting - and not because they know how to sell it. And so begins the cycle: you launch, you hustle, you panic-Google things like “how to write a sales page,” and then you overwork yourself just to stay afloat.

Emma’s story, nine years in, shows that success as a solopreneur isn’t about doing everything. It’s about figuring out what actually works and having the guts to drop the rest. Spoiler: that includes learning to say “no” a lot.

Daniel J Moore, a.k.a. the branding mercenary, runs his business of 1, Iron Dragon Design. Dan had the kind of origin story you only get from total burnout. He went from corporate life to crisis - a spiral of depression, exhaustion, and eventually a moment of “what the hell am I doing?” clarity. That moment gave birth to his business, but also a mantra that kept showing up: freedom requires discipline. Yes, you’re your own boss now. But that means your worst employee will also be… you.

Then there’s Lee Lam, Your Startup Partner. Lee brought the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but…. especially about how solopreneurship can lead to isolation and burnout when you're trying to “do it all” without checking in on whether it’s actually working. Her key insight? As solopreneurs we often default into leadership roles without realising it. You make decisions about growth, direction, branding, suppliers & partners, collaborations, customers… that is leadership. If you ignore that, you’ll steer your own business into the dirt.

Finally, Vinnie Potestivo: the Emmy-award-winning brand builder and host of I Have A Podcast, who’s worked with huge names you’d 100% recognize (no sarcasm there, genuinely). Vinnie shared a different kind of lesson: visibility matters. Ownership of your story matters. He said: “Double down on your name.” Not just for SEO. For identity. For authority. You are the product. Don’t be shy about it.

There’s so much overlap and cross-over between these solo-business-owner lessons and leadership best practices too (and here’s a playlist link so you can listen to each episode in full and benefit from ALL the learnings!).

Why Leadership Skills Still Matter When You’re a Business of One

You might still be thinking: “I don’t manage people. Why do I need leadership skills?”

Because managing yourself is harder.

Leadership for solopreneurs isn’t about team-building, pizza-parties, or corporate jargon. Just like in any other arena of leadership, it’s about self-awareness and self-leadership. It’s making 50 decisions a day that all compound over time, how you deal with people, how they feel afterwards, how they talk about you, how you spend your hours, what projects you say yes to, what kind of clients you attract, and what direction you’re taking your business in.

Lee Lam said it plainly: “We don’t just run our businesses, we are our businesses.” If you don’t know yourself, if you don’t lead yourself, you’re flying blind. Daniel added a crucial distinction: “Control and freedom aren’t the same thing.” He used to chase control; over time, outcomes, money. But freedom came when he gave himself systems, constraints, and accountability. In other words: leadership.

Emma described it like this: “Leadership is asking the right questions and listening.” Listening to your market. Your gut. Your calendar. Your energy. All of it. Vinnie’s take was clear too: consistency is leadership. If you can’t stay consistent with how you show up, you can’t expect anyone to take you seriously. Not your audience, not clients, not even yourself.

📉 Key Takeaways and Mistakes to Avoid

Here’s what stood out across the four episodes:

• ✅ Freedom without structure is chaos. If you want time freedom, you need time discipline.

• ✅ You are your brand. From your email signature to your domain name. Stop hiding behind “we” language when it’s just you. Stand out. Own it.

• ✅ Say ‘no’ more often. Dan reminded us: every “no” protects space for a bigger “yes.”

• ✅ Check your capacity. Lee spoke about how most solopreneurs over-commit because they confuse urgency with importance. 1000% not unique to solopreneurs, but the lesson is: you can’t scale if you’re running on fumes.

• ✅ Be intentional about your visibility. Vinnie said: “You’re already creating content, make it work for you.” Whether that’s LinkedIn posts or podcast interviews, be strategic.

🛑 Mistakes to avoid:

• Acting like a freelancer when you need to think like a CEO

• Thinking visibility is “bragging” (it’s branding, there’s a difference)

• Building a business you wouldn’t want to work at

• Assuming leadership only kicks in when you hire staff; it starts now

Closing Thoughts, Next Steps, And so on….

If you’re a solopreneur, you’re a leader.

Maybe not of a team (yet?). But of a business, a brand, and a vision that lives or dies based on how you show up.

This month’s podcast guests, Emma Friendship-Kilburn, Lee Lam, Dan Moore, and Vinnie Potestivo, all brought something different to the table, but their messages overlapped in powerful ways.

You need to lead yourself well before you can lead anyone else.

That means:

• Get clear on what you stand for and say it loud.

• Audit your workload. If it’s crushing your soul, it’s not sustainable.

• Create containers (time, money, energy) so your freedom has boundaries.

• Don’t wait to “deserve” visibility. Claim it.

And if you mess it up sometimes? Welcome to the club. That’s part of life, part of business. We’ve all done it, we’ll all do it again. As leaders, solopreneurs, people. The real win is showing up again tomorrow with your eyes open and your values intact.

Until next time, keep going, and…. Be a Leader, Not a Boss!

- David

In case you don’t know me that well, I’m David Hatch and I’m here to help new managers and first-time founders with their leadership skills, so they can become leaders not bosses, lead with integrity, and build happier, higher performing teams, more effective organisations, and, ultimately: successful businesses.

If you’d like to join Integrity Leaders, my online leadership community (solopreneurs also welcome 😉) and participate in live member-only workshops, sessions/events, and access an ever growing list of leadership resources as well as get early access to podcast episodes, you can be part of it now.

Here’s the link:
Integrity Leaders: Community membership and learning, for new leaders or first-time founders.

(Quick Tip: There is a new, zero-fee membership tier now! Listen to the podcast and you’ll also hear all about a listener-exclusive discount code!)