Podcasts › The Life-First Solopreneur
Solopreneurship Starts With One Question: What Do You Really Stand For?
What's in this episode
What do you really stand for, and how could knowing the answer transform your business? In this episode of The Life-First Solopreneur, Carly and Joe sit down with Paul Ingram, a 30-year faculty member at Columbia Business School and author of What Do You Really Stand For? (Harvard Business Review Press). Paul makes the case that authenticity, not niching, is what makes a personal brand compelling, and that authenticity flows directly from clarity about your values. Paul doesn't just talk theory. He walks Carly through a live "laddering" exercise, using something as simple as summer plans with her kids to surface her real values, all the way up to her "chief executive value." Along the way, he shares research showing that leaders primed with their own values were rated as more authentic and more worthy of trust. In this episode: Why authenticity is called the gold standard of leadership, and how values unlock it The "triad" laddering exercise to discover your top values on your own How to work with clients whose values differ from yours (without friction) Using your values as a defense against burnout The daily card-in-the-wallet ritual Paul uses before every workday How values clar