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The Unconventional Entrepreneur

Honest essays on building a business on your own terms.

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Where to start

Three issues I'd hand to a new reader.

A personal story

You Moved For This. So Why Does It Feel Like Falling Apart?

I moved my family to Rwanda for the job I'd worked toward for a decade. On what happens to your sense of self when that work ends.

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Behind the scenes

How I Actually Run My Week

How I plan and structure a working week around my own energy and focus, and what I've stopped trying to do.

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On your offer

Three Offers, No Front Door

A client's website listed four good offers and no obvious place to begin. What to do when everything you sell is worth buying.

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The full archive

Every past issue, newest first.
Use the categories to find essays on strategy, marketing, or what goes on behind the scenes.

Categories

You Moved For This. So Why Does It Feel Like Falling Apart?

A few years ago I moved my family to Rwanda for a role that felt like the culmination of everything I had worked towards the prior decade. I finally felt proud of what I did, and worthy because of it. When the job became untenable and I had to leave, I didn't just lose work. I lost the thing my s...

by Laura Baringer — Sep 25, 2026 rooted in purpose

The Daily Bet on Yourself

Here is something that only my old friends know about me. When I was 23, I spent a year at a musical theater school in Italy. I learned to tap, do ballet, and took acting classes. I used to sing. I did musicals in high school, sang throughout college (yes, acapella) but also choirs and solo perfo...

by Laura Baringer — Sep 10, 2026 rooted in purpose

How I kept myself in maintenance mode

I’m coming to the end of my six-week slow down. It wasn’t a six-week vacation (I wish!); it was an intentional, lighter version of business. And I took it for two main reasons. The first is personal. I am not very good at pacing myself. When I’m in something, I’m in it. It’s how I have burnt out...

by Laura Baringer — Aug 28, 2026 behind the scenes

(Try) to stop chasing the shiny new thing

A few months ago, I got a wave of replies to one of my newsletters. "You should put these on Substack." "Have you thought about monetizing this?" I got excited. Maybe there was a new way to share my work that I hadn’t thought of. Maybe I could avoid the hard work of actually building a business! ...

by Laura Baringer — Aug 13, 2026

Why saying your price out loud feels so hard

Updated from an originally shared Tuesday email. Bringing the best ones here for the newsletter archive. Last year, there would always be a moment towards the end of a Clarity Chat when I knew the pricing conversation would come up. As we got closer and they started asking how I work, I could fee...

by Laura Baringer — Aug 06, 2026 rooted in purpose

Pay Yourself From the Start

Updated from an originally shared Tuesday email. Bringing the best ones here for the newsletter archive. Last month, I interviewed a pair of clients who are co-founders of Naker, a pearl-powder capsule brand based in Mauritius. We covered the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, how they went from ...

by Laura Baringer — Jul 30, 2026 practical guides

Delightfully Random Recommendations: Summer Edition

Here is a crowd-sourced mix of things people (and I) genuinely love and keep recommending. Enjoy! 🎧 Podcasts Culture Study, by Anne Helen Petersen: I'm a longtime fan. If you're new to her, start here. Material Girls Podcast: KT recommended this for fans of Anne Helen Petersen. I think I'll st...

Jul 23, 2026 recommendations

What's Changed in My Tech Stack (Hint: It's Claude)

Yesterday I went to send someone my solopreneur tech stack post that I wrote back in August. The very last tool outlined is ChatGPT, which got me thinking it was time for an update. I do still use 95% of the tools in that piece. But there is one key difference: Claude is now at the foundation of ...

by Laura Baringer — Jun 18, 2026 behind the scenes

Three Offers, No Front Door

A few weeks ago I was on a clarity call with a now client. As we were talking we pulled up her website, scrolled to the services page, and she gestured at the whole thing: 'I just need to be clearer about all of this.' There were four offers on the page. All of them good. All of them work she cou...

by Laura Baringer — Jun 04, 2026 business strategy

The Most Underrated Step in Your Business

There's a step that is one of the most underrated in a solopreneur’s journey. Most people overlook it, skip it, or either assume it’s too basic or that their business isn’t big enough to need it. And it's the one I come back to again and again with clients who are stuck, unsure which direction to...

by Laura Baringer — May 28, 2026 practical guides

The Wanting Problem

I met with a neurodivergent client this week, we'll call him Daniel. He’s undiagnosed but pretty sure ADHD. Like many ND clients, he burned out in a high pressure corporate role and now has his own therapy practice. He’s found his passion and is loving his one-to-one work. He’s also excellent at ...

by Laura Baringer — May 14, 2026

Solopreneur Doesn't Mean Solo

For months I knew I needed to be doing more with my marketing, but nothing felt right. Every time I sat down to work on it I'd second-guess myself, change direction, or talk myself out of whatever I'd just decided. I was having a hard time following my own advice, which is a strange place to be. ...

by Laura Baringer — May 07, 2026 business strategy

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