The Germany Expat Business Show
A podcast that shares knowledge, stories and inspiration for anyone starting, running or growing a business as a non-German in Germany.
The Germany Expat Business Show
Burning thoughts on career transition, solopreneurship and life in Germany with Ricardo Brito
Like the show? Have a burning question? Send a text?
“The solopreneur journey really is a mirror that reflects your deepest beliefs, fears, doubts, and limitations. It's a process of growth that forces you to confront not only the external and practical challenges but also the internal ones—those that affect how you see yourself, the world around you, and how you make decisions.”
— Roberto Brito, from his Substack Burning Thoughts post ‘Building a Business, Re-Building Yourself,
I really enjoyed this conversation with Ricardo. It was late on a Friday, and I kind of wanted to just go home, but as with every interview - I ended up energized and excited after we talked.
How Ricardo ended up in Germany
Ricardo ended up in Berlin around 2010/2011 during the economic crisis in Portugal. He had a good job in his field, but realized that there wasn't a promising future for him there, so he decided to quit design a better life for himself.
He had a contact in Berlin who offered him a place to stay for a month. He’d previously done an Erasmus program in Hanover, and was somewhat familiar with German culture. With a thousand bucks saved and no job or house, he moved to Germany.
Now Ricardo helps senior tech and creative professionals navigate their next career move, pivot into new roles, or launch their solopreneur ventures.
After 15 years in Design, Product and Innovation a burnout made him rethink about where his life was heading, and decided to face his worst fear: having his own business.
Listen in to get Ricardo's insights, perspectives and unique take on making a career shift, solopreneurship, content creation and building a personal brand.
You can find this episode and all episodes as well as show notes for each at https://thegermanylist.de/the-germany-expat-business-show-podcast/
Starting or running a business in Germany as a foreigner? Already running an online business in Germany as an expat? Wanting to grow your German-based business? Working as a freelancer in Germany? You'll love my guide with over 30 resources for expat business owners in Germany.
Hi, I'm Eleanor Meyerhofer, a native Californian designer and digital strategist. In October of 1999, a few years after graduating from design school, I flew from San Francisco to Munich with a fistful of Deutschmarks, a dial-up connection and an extremely vague plan. Twenty-plus years later, after a 10-year stint at a global agency freelancing and launching two online businesses, I'm still here. Now I'm talking to other expat business owners to share knowledge, stories and inspiration for other non-Germans running businesses in Germany. I am here with Ricardo Brito and I am going to start with the question that I ask everybody at the top of the show, and that is the two-minute story of how you ended up in Germany.
Speaker 2:Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for having me here. I really appreciate the invite. Eleonore, my two minutes. Well, it was like around 2010,. 2011,. Economic crisis he did Portugal. I actually had a good job, I mean, taking into account the economic crisis. I always worked in my field. I was one of the few people around me that was actually employed, and employed in his field. Point that I was not getting a big future there at that point. And I quit my job, to which everybody was like what are you doing? It's the middle of the crisis. You have a job in your area. Why are you doing this? It's just because I want a better life. Went to Berlin because I had one contact here. I did Erasmus in Hanover and somehow was used to the German culture for a year. I did Erasmus in Hanover and somehow was used to German culture for a year, and this person said yep, I have a sofa for you. For a month and I had no job, no house, I have a thousand bucks saved and I moved to Germany.
Speaker 1:And I mean, I know I can imagine why, but what attracted you to Berlin?
Speaker 2:To be honest, at that point we were looking for any job or not any job. Any country we were like looking. We didn't consider australia at that point for some reason, and ended up in germany because I had contacts. I was totally unaware of what berlin was, if it was a party city or not. At the time I was a graphic designer, branding designer. So there's plenty of agencies there, there's plenty of work there. I didn't even know about the startup world anything. Ended up coming here and realizing well, you are not such a great brand and graphic designer that we're going to hire you anyway. You don't speak the language and I also understood. Damn, but also this industry is dying. Nobody wants to buy print anymore. So I realized that I needed to pivot. That's why I'm entering UX design and I become an intern again and started from there.
Speaker 1:Interesting, interesting and okay, so, but for you, obviously being from Portugal, eu, no problem. Yeah, you were in Hanover and you had a little bit of German, or no German?
Speaker 2:at all, but for you, obviously, being from Portugal, eu, no problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was. You were in Hanover and you had a little bit of German, or no German at all.
Speaker 2:I squeezed out my ear in Hanover with Erasmus, with no German. Really, I did the double of the credits, although I didn't speak German.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a problem. If you're Were you as fluent in English, then, as you are now, Probably less than I am now.
Speaker 2:Much less, I guess.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well then that's pretty amazing, because when you're an English speaker, you know it's kind of a quote unquote problem because you can just speak English all the time. I go to Berlin all the time and I'm just astonished at how much English is spoken there, but not complaining. Okay, so you were in Berlin, you're looking for a job as a designer, you pivot to UX and now you have a website called Career Storytelling.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And why don't you tell us a little bit about, like how this came about, the journey from being a UX designer to what you do now?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that internship in UX design opened up a new career for me, which was the career that I developed. For the last 12 years. I work as a product designer, service designer, innovation manager. I built design teams, did work with different kinds of organizations in tech and I burned out. I was really tired already from the industry. I was a bit fed up, I was a bit disappointed and I had an health problem and a mental problem related to that.
Speaker 2:And during this period, when I was alone or trying to figure out what I was doing, what I will be doing next to get out of tech, I realized I experimented a lot of things, including selling meat, selling meatballs to my friends from my kitchen because I didn't want to touch a laptop, and I came to the realization that, by accident, coaching was something that I was interested in and I was something that people was something that I was interested in and I was something that people were always, although I was always in the industries of delivering stuff you know, a beautiful poster, a product insights, whatnot was always the people I was like the conversations with the people, growing my team, unblocking, facilitating creativity and collaboration. And that, naturally, when I discovered coaching by accident, because I was having therapy and coach on the side, I realized, oh, this is something, maybe it's for me. I would like to, and I started to study it. I went back to the company that burned me out. I was about to be promoted as a director. I said nope, I actually want a demotion, I want to become an individual contributor and work only four days a week.
Speaker 2:And on the side, I started building this small business and trying to understand what I want to do for people. What kind of work can I do, figuring out my business model, my positioning, and all of that until I realized, yep, I think I'm in a good state to do the biggest jump of my life, which was I never want to own my own business and actually having my own business.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you went back. That's, I think, a very clever strategy. You went back downshifted so like not super intense role, but some security, so you could kind of do this as a side hustle and give yourself some runway. Is that? Do I have that right?
Speaker 2:Yes, which again baffled everyone around me why are you going back and why are you doing this? But I think for me was the was the most, yeah, smartest thing to do.
Speaker 1:So how did you grow it?
Speaker 2:By business, you mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And is it? Is that? When was it called career storytelling or coaching, or how did you get started?
Speaker 2:It took me a long time to understand what I do exactly and I still struggle with the terminology. Am I a coach or a mentor or an advisor? I do so many different things and I wear so many different hats. Everything has its own space. It grew somehow naturally through people. I work with a lot of people, all kinds of people, all kinds of, with all kinds of situations to understand what type of problems I'm solving for them.
Speaker 2:I never wanted to develop content. That was something that is like, ah man, I don't want to develop content. I also don't want to niche down. Then I realized, yeah, but if you don't niche down to it's like building a product for everyone, so you build a product for no one. So it's kind of okay. I beat the bullet and I understand. Actually, this is the kind of problems I solve. I solve people in career transitions. They need to be senior and they are going through some personal transformation. And it grew with the content as well.
Speaker 2:I never wanted to write, but my own coach was like, yeah, you have so much to say, why don't you write an article? It's just like who's going to read that? You know I have a lot of opinions, but like who's going to read that? So I was really afraid to put myself out there, but then I found a loophole. I found like, oh, I can include my illustrations and justify why I have a fine arts degree with my newsletter. And the newsletter started was my gateway to starting creating more content as newsletters, videos and really understanding that I enjoy that. So it's not just a marketing gimmick or a growth gimmick. I really enjoy to share my opinions, I really enjoy to, to know, to put my learnings out there and to connect with people. And it grew. It grew up from that and from referrals and from my client base, I guess okay, okay, that explains.
Speaker 1:I was just poking around in your sub stack and looking at all of your beautiful illustrations and now, okay, you've got a background in design, it's all coming together. But so do I understand this? Right? You started with, like, content creation and that was how you got referrals, got the word out.
Speaker 2:I mean I had clients even before that, even before saying that I was a coach or anything. I had clients because I was reaching out to people. Like how I grew up was more like hey, I do this process, now I offer coaching. I started offer coaching to friends of friends or never persons that I met directly, to put my name out there, to also develop and honor my skills. The content was something that I realized that I needed to go out of my network to have a bigger, because nobody searched for a coach. Let's be honest, nobody like, oh, I really I mean maybe a therapist you do, but we are at very different topics but like nobody goes, oh, I really need a coach. No, so you need to put yourself out there and to also show, hey, maybe you are facing this problem or maybe have you thought about that. So creating the content was also a way for me to to connect with a bigger community and have a bigger reach, I would say.
Speaker 1:I sent you this question, but you said you wear a lot of hats. Coach Mender, Do you also consider yourself a creator?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I'm struggling with it. My partner goes oh no, now I'm dating a content creator. I never expected that which, by the way, she's the most amazing person, is the second brain in this business in many senses. But I don't know. I don't know how to reply to this question, because it started as something that I do on the side and it's just as an outlet for some opinions. Nowadays, I work with a great content strategist that helps me to figure out my angles, to put my head in order in terms of what we should be speaking about, what things I should focus on, and also helps me with the creative side. So, yeah, well, I think maybe I'm a content creator because I'm going very strategic about it.
Speaker 1:You've got a content you're profesh. I'm just like what do I want to blab about today? I have a like running list of topics, but yeah, but that works too right.
Speaker 2:But for me I need a little bit more structure.
Speaker 1:And okay, so you're producing this content. I want to back up a little bit because I noticed you've got your website, you've got the sub stack with a thousand, and then I saw that you've got a thousand followers, but then what was like the primary platform you started at. And the reason I'm asking these questions is that I think a lot of people kind of want to know how you get started and what it takes and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I enter. This is a good question. It's a bit of a bad beef too, I think. Maybe you experienced that and other people experienced that. I think when you're starting this kind of solopreneur business and you are the brand and you are the product, it's very easy to enter in this loophole. Oh, what should I do? What is the marketing techniques? And then you go there's so many people selling, you should use my system of creation, you should use my marketing and she used my marketing. And I was totally lost on that. Like, where do I start? Like this is overwhelming, costs a lot of money. I realized that start with the thing that you feel comfortable with and take it from there. That was my biggest learning. My thing was like I can completely overthink where I start a newsletter, which tools and so on. Where is my people? I have a huge. I have like at that point, I have like what? Two, two and a half thousand followers on my linkedin without creating content.
Speaker 2:I I did a lot of speaking gigs around design and innovation, so I have kind of okay I already had a base and a public figure sorts of saying out there within a very niche scene. But you know, I had some followers which like, why should I create something outside that I have? Zero followers. I created on LinkedIn and my newsletter started to grow from that and then I move on to Substack, because Substack was a little bit better in terms of like the UI is better, the emails, the whole system is much better.
Speaker 2:I do regret it, I have to say, to start it on LinkedIn because I think getting your first thousand followers on a newsletter without having their emails, without being able to connect with them in a different way, it's something that I built over two years and now it's just I have nothing to show for it Because if LinkedIn closes the tap or I leave the platform, I don't have any way to connect with these followers or with these people that engage. So if I would start a newsletter today, I would start in something that I own, at least either my own email provider or a sub-stack where I keep the emails of these people. So when I move on to another platform, I bring these people together with me. So that's something that's a big learning.
Speaker 1:That is fascinating, because I started on LinkedIn to sort of the same reason and not like at first I was a little bit sheepish about LinkedIn because I used to work at a big agency too and I was like that's my old corporate life, I don't want to go on there and talk about stuff. But then I realized that's where people that need my services are and in fact right now I'm doing a project, for I've done so much work with ex-colleagues, um, but it was like, okay, it's business and it's just like business networking fine. But in terms, I mean, it's a little bit catch-22 because, like you said, you already had like 2 000 people on there. Why are you going to go somewhere and start from scratch? But it is true, you don't get emails a little catch-22 there. So if you had started on substack but with nobody, do you think it would have been as easy to grow that up without?
Speaker 2:I guess I would never know what I get. But but my answer, I think no, I think would take a lot more effort. I think I mean also because I mean we are getting into the nitty-gritty right, but but sharing an external link on LinkedIn is something that you get punished by the algorithm and so on, so it's so hard. But again, I think you are also playing the long game, right. This is playing the long game of building a brand and building so in Insight, maybe I would have done that and I would have bitten the bullet and you know, like, okay, it's going to be a bit slow, but worth it in the long run. Because now I'm strategizing, how do I move these people to give me their emails? And now I need to create a lot of strategies to think about that.
Speaker 2:And on some sec I noticed it's not paywalled at all. No, I have a hard time with making content that is paid. In a world where content is so free and available, I find that a bit tricky. I don't consume paid content as well by myself from creators, so I prefer to put everything for free out there. Even my tools are out there for free. I'm not charging like $5 or anything. Okay, put everything for free out there. Even my tools are out there for free. I'm not charging like $5 or anything. Okay, take everything for free, no gatekeeping. But if you want to operationalize them, you probably would need to work with me. So I put everything for free.
Speaker 1:And how did you build up your Substack following, or subscriptions rather.
Speaker 2:I was everything on LinkedIn at the bottom. Follow me on Substack.
Speaker 1:Did that work.
Speaker 2:That worked. There's quite some people that was coming from Substack Also because if you open an email from LinkedIn on your email and this newsletter it looks really crappy. If you open an email from LinkedIn on your email and you know, like this newsletter, it looks really crappy and and the whole interaction, the whole feeling of interacting with newsletter in in on LinkedIn is is not the best. So Substack feels really nice and you so. I guess people naturally move. Some people that were already maybe on Substack they found me there and they started to. I created one or two email campaigns where I said to. I created one or two email campaigns where I said hey, I'm now on substax, please go there, but I still didn't came to with these, with these strategies that people do, ah, if you go to my substax, you have special content or special things, so I think they move from there. And I also did a mail blast to friends and family and like can you please go and follow me there now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no shame in that game. Okay, interesting. So let's go back to talk about your coaching work and your client work. Who is your audience? And client and customer.
Speaker 2:I work primarily with senior people in tech and creative fields Tends to be a lot of designers, product managers, brand people, so you know, art directors, creative directors, product directors, product designers this range. I work also with marketing people, senior people who have worked in tech and they are most likely like late 30s, early 40s, rethinking their, their, their life. And then I. They are in three different parts of the journey. I think there is a journey of transition and there is three different side, three different stages.
Speaker 2:I work with people who are like, look, I'm okay with my job, not 100 happy, and I want to start the process of exploring what's there for me. What other things are there, maybe other careers, maybe pivoting on a horizontal way, but they are not ready to take a plunge or even strategize it. Then I work with people that are in another stage, which is the stage well, I actually have a couple of options. I want to test them out and understand what really is the one that I want to go for and then strategize how I make that transition to this new job or to this new field or to this new career. Or I work with the people that are at that stage, but they are also ready to implement it, to say, okay, be there with me and we're going to start this together.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Does that clarify?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense. So are they mostly based in Germany or do you work remotely with people all over the world?
Speaker 2:All over the world, as much as the time difference allows. Okay, okay, I have clients in Canada, australia, india, all over Europe, yeah, so as long as the time difference allows, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:Okay, and how did you build up that clientele being based in Berlin?
Speaker 2:A lot of it is the content I tend to. I have a good network and try to get into events and often I'm getting invited to talk with uh, to talk to meetups or conferences or run workshops, and I guess that that close connection helps, but also all the marketing materials that meetups do and conferences do, especially online, right like I go to a meetup online and there's people from all over the world nowadays right, right and the meetups and like are the events you do like.
Speaker 1:What proportion is online versus in person?
Speaker 2:mostly online, actually. I think it's changing nowadays. I think that I mean I try to be also in, go to events, but present if I can, if as the but online has a huge, especially if you are building this kind of solopreneur business and your clientele is everywhere, online is probably a good place to be because, first, you have a lot more reach of different organizations that are not just local. Second, you can attract a lot more clients from all kinds of parts of the world that otherwise would not meet you anyway and you are piggybacking on on marketing machines that already have their clientele based that um, that expose you to so many different places and in people yeah, yeah I I started this, this gig in covid with a toddler.
Speaker 1:But it was actually great I mean great in air quotes but because I just was sort of like I had thought about, like you know, doing websites for a while, but I wasn't, I was sort of on the fence about it. But anyway, I just was like, oh, I can go to look at this meeting in Rotterdam. They're having their thing on online. I could just go there. And it wasn't weird, because of course, it doesn't matter where you are, you could just dial in. And that was actually, I think, for a lot of online service providers. There was like a boom in the COVID years and then kind of a bust in 23 and 24, because so many people were just like going online and using services and then everybody thought, oh well, this is normal, and then it wasn't yeah which maybe if your clientele is around the world.
Speaker 1:But I'm just curious. I mean, I I'm now solo, but I worked in agencies and agencies here in Munich for years and my husband's still at Publicis but what's the vibe in the industry right now? What I feel like is like the whole startup tech vibe. It's like shaky, would you say that Is it just Europe or is it all everywhere?
Speaker 2:I think it's everywhere yeah I think it's everywhere.
Speaker 2:I mean it's just there's differences how people react to it.
Speaker 2:I think if you work in places where there's the social security is not so strong, I think people are a lot more pragmatic, a lot more action-oriented, a lot less questioning. So I mean there is the same level of questioning the job or questioning the nature of the work, but there is a lot more pragmatism into getting again into the job market, especially if you have been unemployed, for example. So I see more the difference in people who are in unemployment because I also work, for example, with fired up space, where I have the opportunity to work with unemployed people who could not afford to work with me. And I can see a bit of a difference when I work with unemployed people outside of Europe, for example, with less social security systems. It's much more pragmatic. It's much more let's get it done, let's position myself better or let's get my business off the ground much quicker, While in Europe I feel that there is more room for questioning and exploration and being a little bit more comfy I'm not saying that's bad, but can create certain negligence about your future too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting. I mean when I was, when I came to Germany I had, you know, I came on my own and I would. Then I got a job and at the agency and then I was kind of not sure if I wanted to go back or not. But I started thinking about it and this was many years ago and I would have gone back to San Francisco and but I started thinking like, oh my God, I can't go freelance because I won't have any healthcare and I won't, I'll have like no vacation and it'll be so expensive and a lot of those. I mean I had a job.
Speaker 1:It wasn't at that time, things were still booming in tech but I felt like here I actually had more freedom to make a decision. And then I did Grundungssuchesgeld and it was like, oh my God, I can't believe they're giving me all this money. And my husband was like you've been paying taxes here for 10 years. And I was like, oh yeah, you're right, but I don't know, maybe it's closer. I think it's good to be questioning. I mean you can't, I mean I don't know what you're seeing, but you don't get enough to just be unemployed forever. But it's not like a terrifying situation, would you say, that's….
Speaker 2:In Germany.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or in any country with a social safety net versus like sink or swim.
Speaker 2:Yeah and totally, and I'm all up for safety nets right, and I'm all up for I think that's a very good system to. That's a very good system to have, and myself I use the Grundungszuschuss also to support building my business. But sorry, I got lost. I got lost in my time.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was just saying, do you? I was like, do you see? You can't. I mean you can't even the. Even if you have a generous social safety net, you can't be unemployed forever.
Speaker 2:So people still have to be motivated at some point yes, and they and I think they are, and I think they are, I think there are. I think there is a different level, there is a different sense of urgency when I work with people who don't have that social security net. Yeah, either one is better or the other is just different. That's an observation that I can see that if you don't have that safety net, you tend to be a lot more pragmatic, a lot more risk-taking and a lot more quicker in your decisions.
Speaker 2:Is that good, Maybe in some ways, maybe in other ways. Not that good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, interesting. I want to switch topics a little bit back to tools. I'm very sorry, but I'm always curious about you are based in germany. Yeah, I see that you sell digital products. Uh, you have, you have a course on, yeah right, the career storytelling course yeah I am curious about, like, what kind of CRM and accounting tools you use. This is a business show Fair enough.
Speaker 2:So I'm okay, I don't have a CRM. I used to use Notion for a while to track my clients and payments and so on. I had like two views. One was like my clients and where we are in terms of process and did I send the invoice? Did I not? And I had another view where I had the sales right, like what's in the pipeline, what we need to reply and all of that Very basic. Nowadays I use Atio, but the free version just because it automates. It fetches a lot of information from my emails Very basic. Nowadays I use Atio, but the free version Just because it automates. It fetches a lot of information from my emails and automates. Wait, what's it called Atio?
Speaker 1:Oh, I haven't heard of this.
Speaker 2:It's like HubSpot, a bit more friendly, but I don't use a fraction even of what these tools are. It's just for certain things. It's a bit bad Now invoicing, which is my biggest fear, and taxes and so on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I went really old school German, I went, dativ, I went full on Dativ you used Dativ, not even Lexware.
Speaker 1:You went straight to Dativ.
Speaker 2:I used Dativ because you know my my accountant made a good make, a good case. Look, you need to deal with your private taxes as an individual. You need to deal with your accounting. You, you need to. You need to pass receipts and invoices and all of that. You need to have access.
Speaker 2:All of these systems, ideally, are connected to your bank account, so everything is transparent. I mean, he made a good case. Look, you have a tool that connects to your business bank account that always patches all the information what comes in and out and updates and matches what goes in and out. 90% of the accounting work is already done just by having that. 90% of the accounting work is already done just by having that. Then you have another tab where you have all your private taxes, which is one tool. Send it to the finance arm and it already has your business information and on top of it is the same system where you pass the invoices.
Speaker 2:You can have all of these systems individually with other companies, but to plug them in and to communicate all of this information to make it easy for the content, it's going to long run it's going to get more expensive and more risky. So I said you know what I want the most, bulletproof thing. Everything is centralized. I invoice through DatEv, my bank account is connected to DatEv, my taxes are there and I pay a very small fee. To be honest, I don't think it's very expensive and I at least go to bed secure that all my accounting. Theoretically it's spotless.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is so fascinating to me, so you can generate an invoice in English from DatDev.
Speaker 2:Yeah, DatDev is a bit of a Frankenstein in terms of English and German, so it's kind of it's Denglish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, but that's okay for your clients in Canada and that doesn't. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I can put the description in English. That's okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, they don't, they're not like, what's this? And then what about like for me? Where it gets complicated, is I not many and not often, but I'll sell digital products and I do that all through squarespace and that goes to my stripe. And then I got to get all the stuff out of stripe and then all the stuff out of paypal and then all the stuff out of the bank, and then I gotta reconcile, I mean, and then I hey, I got this. I got to really get a hold of myself, because I kind of go on a tax ramp in every episode.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry but, I'm just always curious about how everybody else deals with this, especially if you're not like I. Feel like it's organized for people that are consultants to have like two big invoices a month, not like a bunch of little ones, and then it's just a nightmare yeah, that's the thing that I'm struggling in germany with.
Speaker 2:I think like when I look at other countries, is a bit loser or more entrepreneurial friendly on these kind of topics. It's one of the barriers why I don't have digital products so fun. Oddly enough, I don't. I don't sell my cars so fun. Oddly enough, I don't. I don't sell my cars digitally. Do you know what you need to do? You need to book a meeting with me.
Speaker 1:And then you send them a data invoice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because, because, because the, because the pain of adding that it's so much bigger and I'm going to take so much risk that maybe all the money I make there I'm going to spend it to finance them, because I screw up something. It's just like I don't want that. But this is also the hoops and loops that I think German tech system makes us do, which is wait a second. I need to change my whole sales process to avoid all of these potential problems so I can sell without you know, in a less risky way. It has also a different, a different topic, because I believe that if you are paying a high ticket and I think you know 600 bucks is a still a lot of money for a lot of 600 bucks is a lot of money. I don't give 600 bucks like because I saw a post of you in the internet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so $27 thing. Yeah, it's about a $27 thing.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and it's going to be a live thing. So if we don't connect and you don't like me, even if I have the best course in the world, you don't want to go because you need to deal with me. So this is also a call to understand do you fit the course? Is the course for you? Can I tailor something better to you? And yeah, in the end you get an invoice. So that is a good upside of doing this sales process. But the sales process was driven by man. I cannot make this digitally shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then I think about this because I realized it is not worth selling any online product under 150 euros because just the admin it's like not worth it at all. Yeah, and I was like, oh god, but if I do that, and then I gotta have it run through squarespace and I was just but, and that was like stopping me from doing this, but yeah, it's worth it to have the quick call if it's an in-person thing. But yeah, it's worth it to have the quick call if it's an in-person thing.
Speaker 2:Just have a call and then just invoice it through your normal thing. Yeah, yeah, and for me, I don't think it was by design per se, but I agree to talk about my brand because I am the brand or I am a brand is me, I don't know who, but I like to connect really good connections with people. All my clients work with me, even after stop working with me. You're right there. They have a WhatsApp community. I still offer free group coaching sessions every month for anybody that has worked with me, because I want to create this personal connection. I used to do products for millions of people that I never put the face on, so that's why I created this business. So in the, in a way, these techs, this tax system painful tax system is also contributing to my rent, because if you really want to work with me and come to my course, we get to know each other, we tell if that's a good match and you know we create a relationship right there. Or maybe it's just me trying to justify how I dodged this tax question.
Speaker 1:No positive frame. We all got to stay positive. That's a great attitude, ricardo. I like it. So okay, we covered most of the things. I'm going to just slowly wrap it up. It's Friday at 5, almost 5.40. Do you have like any lessons learned or advice you'd give to anybody who's just starting their business journey in Germany?
Speaker 2:In Germany, yeah yeah, because there is business lessons that one can start, as in general, but in Germany, yeah Well, be prepared to be ridiculously organized. I think that's. I think that's also what saved me, like I needed to be ridiculously organized with all my paperwork and having like backups of everything, be ready to have very painful conversations. I think one of the things that people underestimate I did certainly is get your account start. You don't? You don't have an accountant now. You don't plan to start a business? Great, that's fine, start looking for one, because the day you need it, you know is is like, yeah, start looking for one now and make a good relationship. I think that's a big one because it blocks everyone.
Speaker 1:And also business in general. I mean, so yeah, the Germany part, but yeah, don't chip out.
Speaker 2:I think there are things that are worse to chip out and there are things that are, for example, anybody that I heard in the last year that chip out, for example, in terms of tax consultants, tax administration, invooicing and so on.
Speaker 2:They always got they, they always, they always backlash and that was something at the beginning is really scary. Like I don't want to spend like I don't know a thousand bucks in setting up this and paying to this guy and this, and paying like I don't know 30 bucks a month for when I could pay maybe five, and I use this tool and so those shortcuts are going to bite you. I'm going to buy gnds later on and that's the moment that when you want to grow and then it's like you need to solve all of these admin problems and catching up, I try to understand, like the most, if this business is to scale in a certain extent, I don't want to scale certain basics. I don't want to think about transforming my invoicing system and tech system because I want that done Painful at the beginning, but then it's done. I don't because I have actual business problems to work on how to scale it, what's my business, what's my pricing, all of that it's more important. So that's one thing that I would give advice, especially in germany.
Speaker 2:The second one, and that took me a long time to learn and I think I wasted a lot of time to learn that one. He said want to make money, you need to spend money. And that's really a cliche, but it's true. The moment I decided I need to start investing, even if you know I'm paying just the bills and not, yeah, you need to then I started to to invest in people to work with me, to hey, I need you to help me to solve this problem. Hey, I need you to write copy for my website, because I cannot pull that off. When I started to delegate certain things, to get space to the things that one was that actually my business needs and to push value. Another thing, especially coming from tech, I see a lot of people going into businesses and they really get lost in the tooling I need to get the best crm.
Speaker 2:I need to get this. I need to get that. No, you don't. Do you know your business? Do you know who you're talking to? Do you know what you're selling? Do you know your value? Like it's not. The right time to discuss is is this Squarespace versus Wix? Is this Datta versus this? Is this mailing list? Because none of that matters if you don't know which problems are you solving or whom are you solving and how do you solve them?
Speaker 2:And I think a lot of people fail in this because we get lost in all of this administrative and we don't give love to that, and I think that's another bigger learning that I have to be crystal clear with that.
Speaker 1:I think it's interesting. You say that because I confront that a lot. I have a post talking. It's like do you really need a website or do you just need business therapy? Because sometimes and I say that also because it happens to me too that it's easier in some ways to get you know fixated on tools and this than really those are hard questions. Those are hard questions and even if you've been in business for a while, like you said at the beginning, like you didn't want to niche down and all that stuff and you know, I know that can be a religious debate but those are the fundamental questions about your business and they are important. They're going to be certainly more important than the tools you use in the long run.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think another thing that plays into that and I'm sorry if I'm opening a big can of worms right now towards the end, but I think I don't know how it was for you but, like when you are doing your own business, you bring a lot of your own insecurities, your personal insecurities, your fears and your traumas what not into that and there are things that we cannot figure out. We don't know how to figure out certain things because maybe we don't have the skills yet or maybe because we are too much inwards to to actually see the bigger picture. And then there is such a cacophony of, like, so much noise out there like you should use my sales to the technical issues that really triggers, that really triggers and and preys on on those fears, and I think for me it was really really hard to and to to, to tone down that noise and to really understand what do I need to solve? What is the problems that I really need, that I really need to solve? Where? Where am I lacking where? What kind of help do I need?
Speaker 2:And then going specifically going to try to find the people that could solve me that, and every single time I go to somebody that I find on the internet, it never works out. Every single time I reach out to my network, it's like hey, I have this problem. Do you know somebody that can support me on that? 100% of the time, that's the person I hire, because for not because I'm biased, it's because, truly, this person knows what they are doing. They are not promising the sun and the moon, and I have been fantastic results. So it's funny because I also, I'm one of these kind of persons that I'm out there hey, I can do this for you. But at the same time is, yeah, that was one of the biggest learnings as well, too.
Speaker 1:You know, but it's both. It's both Because I yes, sometimes I have a little thing on my CRM that's like lead source and it's not like just word of mouth, it's that. But then all the stuff you put out there, people can like get into that and kind of check you out. Even if you're being referred by a trusted resource, you still have to do that I think.
Speaker 1:I don't think, even if somebody recommends you and you just have like go to my Instagram or whatever, I don't think that is enough supporting information for somebody to make a high ticket purchase, for example. So good advice, for example, so good advice. I'm actually, as you're talking, I am going to connect you with somebody who I know could really benefit from your insights, who's in Berlin, an old friend from California. So before we we jump off, plug away, where can people find you? All that kind of stuff? So I'm always active on LinkedIn, that's my main tool.
Speaker 2:You can people find you, all that kind of stuff. So I'm always active on LinkedIn. That's my main tool. You can also find me on Instagram and you can subscribe. Please subscribe on Substack to my newsletter, not on LinkedIn, because I need your email and that's basically it. Every two weeks I do this newsletter. You might find me somewhere in some event which I always advertise, and that's about it. I'm not. I'm not so spread out. I try tiktok, but I can't like. I cannot have that installed in my phone. I get too addicted.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I, I downloaded it once and looked at, immediately jumped off. But um, that's pretty. I'm about to just totally do an evergreen on my Instagram and just go down to LinkedIn individual reach outs, my client newsletter. Yeah, that's it. I'm like really wanting to scale down. Yeah yeah, I think we just had a really nice summer vacation. I came back and I was like I don't want to, I want less digital. But great, it was wonderful talking to you and everybody check out Ricardo's stuff and thanks for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you too, Eleanor. It's been really a pleasure to be here and thanks so much for the nice discussion. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:My pleasure, pleasure. Thanks for listening. You can find this and all other Germany Expat Business Show podcasts at thegermanylistde Bye.