[Transcript starts at 0:40]
Hello, hello, hello my podcast people and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite online business podcast. If you are listening, if you are watching, if you are tuning in on the day that it drops, it is Monday, August 17th. Welcome to August 17th.
Today we are talking about the fact that everyone is trying to sell you something and I'm gonna do my best to not have this episode be just like one giant complaint because that's not really where it's stemming from, but it has definitely been inspired by some recent frustrations. So before I hop into the main topic of said frustrations, I wanted to do a little follow-up to last week's episode which was what happens when your business stops feeling exciting because we have some more data. So long story short, I had the first call for my Crew 52 coaching program and it was so fucking good and dare I say it, I am excited for the next 12 months.
So for those of you who don't know, Crew 52 was my 12-month accountability program. I recently launched it and the focus is purely on helping folks get consistent with content creation over the course of a year. There is no tie into a financial outcome.
There is no tie into a specific launch outcome. It's just getting, it is simply getting consistent with content creation. Be that social media, podcasting, newsletter, email, blog, YouTube, whatever.
A few of them, pick a few, pick all of them, whatever is appropriate for that person. Each goal and cadence and such is individually set. So we kicked it off with our first call on August 4th and I am loving it so much and while like I mentioned in that episode, if you listened to it, this is the previous episode, I do know the outcome.
If folks commit, they will get consistent. I will help them do it. I already know that outcome.
They will create content. They will build the habit and while that is true, there are also some things that I don't know. I don't know what they will create exactly.
I don't know what this program in and of itself could lead to and that is really exciting. The fact that I am enjoying the program and I am like, hey, I want to do this. I want to keep doing this.
That is a really exciting thing to me. So we know that that unknown, that brings excitement. I want to add one more thing, which is an action item that was inspired by one of the amazing humans in Crew 52.
So in last week's episode, my whole push was basically that it is fine to feel that lack of excitement. It is normal and staying the course, doing what you have been doing is a completely viable option. That is like what largely what I was doing and I kind of switched things up, but like staying the course is a totally viable option.
So the flip side here, to give you the permission that you don't need, it is also totally viable to start something completely new. So I have an amazing Crew 52 member and she is starting an entirely new Instagram account and I fucking love that. I also love that you folks listening to this, we folks watching this, you know that it is in fact a big deal to start a completely new Instagram account.
So if you are not finding excitement presently in your business, you can keep things the same or you can do something completely new. The choice is always yours. So fast forward here, main topic or moving forward, I guess, main topic.
Everyone is trying to sell you something and this is inspired by the fact that I have eyes. So this is something that I definitely felt frustration with for a bit, but I either didn't have the words or it just didn't bother me enough for me to find the words, but I have them now. And the reality is in the online business space, someone is always trying to sell you something.
If someone is making a case for something, it's because they are trying to sell you something. I had a really, I'm going to mention her again later. I talked about her before.
She's a fan of Banana, but on her workshop, she made a really good point. She's like, if a company is letting you know about something, about a feature or a part of their product, it's because they want you to know about it and that's because they believe that it will help you buy this thing. It will help make the case so that you buy this thing.
And I was like, yeah, man, everything that we are aware of that a company tells us and shows us and says and does, it's because they are trying to sell us something. And I am not objectively or absolutely opposed to selling things or making a case for things, but I also fucking hate it depending on how it's done. So more precisely, I am not opposed to making a case for something, but there, you know, absolutely feels like there is a more ethical way to do it and also less ethical ways to do it, right? And, you know, perhaps people have convinced themselves.
I'm not largely talking about like, you know, independent or individual like creators, solopreneurs, things like that. You know, people have convinced themselves that whatever they're promoting is truly the best and it's unparalleled, you know, but also how you communicate this, how you speak about it. I do believe that there are more ethical ways to do it.
I have recently been watching so many car repair videos. That's like my Instagram feed. I love being on Instagram because I get served.
Is this focused where I want it to be? I'm just going to touch the camera real quick. Okay, I guess so. I have been watching so many videos about cars and fixing cars and I love Instagram because you can curate that.
You watch it for a little bit and like that's all you're going to get served. And so when people are like, man, I get served like overwhelming things or I get things that like make me upset or like, I don't know. I'm like stop fucking watching that.
Go watch something else. I love being on Instagram because of that and I'm watching so many car repair videos. I watch a lot of just home improvement, like DIY stuff.
I recently fixed Lexus Sync. So I was watching a bunch of videos on how to fix it, a bunch of YouTube videos on how to fix it and I was perusing the Reddit forums. And the point of this story is that in that fixing and in the watching YouTube videos and going on Reddit, there were still a lot of different ways to do it, right? The specifics of the Sync, right? So we're talking about using plumber's putty versus not, using silicone versus not.
The specifics of the Sync and the drain largely dictate the approach, but even then there were options, right? So to me and the reason I brought up the car repair videos is like also I feel like I could like, I could definitely change brakes and rotors and calipers at this point. I'm watching enough videos. But like these things, they have math and science that is involved.
They have physics that's involved. And so to that end, these approaches fixing things, there's objectively like a more correct and a less correct, a more optimal and a less optimal way to do it. And yet even within that, even within that reality, that containment, right? There are still options and various approaches for how to do this, right? I'm thinking about the plumber's putty.
Some people were talking about putting it above and below. I put it above and below. I was like, I think there should be another thing here.
It's not going to, not going to break anything. It's kind of like, why not? All right. But you watch other videos and they don't do that.
You watch some videos and they're using tools and it's like, you shouldn't do that because you're probably going to break it, you know, or tighten it. But either way, there's, you know, more optimal, less optimal ways to do it. There's still, but there's still variation.
And this is within things that do have like more optimal, less optimal outcomes because it's math and science, right? There's more absolute values to this. And so given that, and there's still variation and variability. When I think about something as, you know, far from concrete as online business, as made up as online business, you damn sure cannot have just one approach that is it, that is the only way, right? And that's how these, some of these people are presenting it.
And it's just like, that ain't it, homie. I try to approach my messaging by saying, this is what I do. This is the approach I like to take.
This is what has worked for me and my people, but you do you. And you consider your own circumstances and your own goals and your own background and your own experiences and your own desires and your own just personality when you're choosing and what to do. Right.
I absolutely detest contrast marketing. I am never trying to highlight what other people are doing or using it as a launchpad for my own content. Like even like discussing it in this episode, I'm like, I don't want to say too much about what other people are doing because I don't fucking care.
But I see it and then I'm like, oh, I'm not following you anymore because I hate this. Right. But I don't like to use it as a launchpad or inspiration for my own content.
It's not, it doesn't feel good. Right. So, you know, when I'm, when I am on my sacred Instagram and my less sacred threads, threads is not so sacred.
And I see someone making these, you know, absolute claims. I'm just like, well, this person's about to sell you something. And I hate it.
Right. Because the way that they're doing it, it feels like those commercials from like the late eighties and the nineties that were just so overly dramatic. And if you weren't around then, or you didn't want to talk about, you can like YouTube them.
You've seen them and they come up. Right. Like they were so overly dramatic.
Like there's one for like a headset thing. Like you could turn your phone, your wired phone into like a headset, like, like attaches it to your head. So you have your hands free.
And it was so dramatic. The woman is like on the phone and like stirring what is like supposed to be, I guess, cake, but it's like very liquidy. It's like very soupy.
It's huge bowl. And she like, you know, freaks out and like drops the phone into the soup cake batter. And it's just like so over the top and they've set up this problem so that they can then sell you a solution.
And it's like, chill, bro. Chill, chill. Right.
That inflating of the problem, that making a caricature of it. That's the shit that I hate. And that's what it feels like on the interwebs these days.
I mean, it's felt like that for sure. But this week I'm annoyed enough about it to say something right there. And this is actually, there are a handful of creators I follow and I can always tell when they're gearing up to sell something.
And again, there's nothing wrong with selling, right? I personally coach folks to do this. I call it a magic month where you, whatever it is, that thing that you're going to be promoting, you want to talk about that topic for at least a month before for sure. But it is how they are talking about it that I'm just like, oh, this feels bad, right? Making these universal and broad sweeping claims, highlighting problems that may or may not exist.
And it's typically based on their own experience, things that affect them, the way that they do things, removing nuance and leaning heavily, heavily on their own personal story and personal results. I don't like that. It feels bad in my body.
Maybe you're listening to this and you're like, I need like an example of this. There was a creator and she was making a case. This is kind of what Spitzbark did because I was like, oh, she's making a case for the necessity.
And basically the only way that you're going to succeed on social media is if you track your metrics. And I was like, I don't agree with that. I teach the opposite.
I found that for the majority of people, they just need volume. They need to keep going. They need to ignore the metrics, especially on social media.
You know if something does well or not. You don't need to go all up in the numbers. And staying in the numbers will stress you the fuck out.
It will be just so much because the numbers go up and down and you can't control them. And so when they're down, you're like, what the fuck? What do I have to do? Meanwhile, it's just like things go up, things go down. And she was just making this hard case for like, this is the way to succeed.
And the reason that people don't succeed is because they don't look at their numbers. And I was like, this is survivor bias based on your own experience, your own surviving. Meanwhile, the thing that she's actually missing is that like what it takes and what she should be talking about.
She's a very, very good creator. What she should be talking about then, in my opinion, is what it takes internally to be willing to sit in the shit and be a trend jacker. That's what she does.
It's called trend jacking. Nothing wrong with it. It's like basically being a news reporter, like whatever story is trending, whatever is like a hot topic, like weighing in, doing your research on the things.
That's like a lot for your nervous system. And this person actually had to take a break from social media for a bit. And I was like, yeah, that's what you should be talking about.
Not like, oh, you need to track the numbers. And I know she's saying this because she's running a workshop about it. And I'm just like, it's fine.
And also how you do these things, how you explain it, how you talk about it. I do believe that there's a more ethical way to do it. I do.
By all means, make a case for things. Make a case for it. Absolutely.
And also sell however the fuck you want to sell. I'm saying that to me, there's a more ethical way to do it. Autonomy is sexy though.
Do I think that there is a quote unquote better way that gives autonomy to all parties? Yes. But I would be a hypocrite if I positioned my approach as the only one. This is what I like.
This is what I suggest. And if you like it, you're picking up what I'm putting down. There you go.
But my play for this episode and largely the reason that I'm recording it is to borrow a page from, who's that name again? Safana Banana. That's her name on Instagram. Safana Banana.
Borrow a page from her book and just open your eyes to the marketing practices and marketing tactics that exist, that are out there. I took her, it was like how to read an ad. It was a workshop.
It was a Zoom workshop. It was really good. Definitely recommend it.
It was great. But I just want to open your eyes like, hey, this is what's, and I think you know, but I'm just saying, because it's my podcast, right? But the HSP in me, the highly sensitive person in me definitely feels some kind of way when I see these aggressive marketing tactics. And I know they're going to work.
They're going to work on some people and people will buy. And look, I am no one's keeper. I am no one's CPA.
People are adults and they can make their own decisions and people like buying things for sure, right? But the practice itself, all of those facts doesn't make me feel any better, right? It doesn't make me, it doesn't make the selling approach any less bothersome to me. I think that for me, you know, a question that I always come back to when I'm selling something, launching something, promoting something is will this help the customer more than it will help my bank account? And I apply it to the offer, but it is the framing that I have as well for the messaging and the marketing that I do about the offer. And I'm not saying that, I'm not trying to say that other people don't do that.
I'm simply saying that's what I do and why I see messaging about something. When I see something about messaging, when I see messaging about something that is in my domain, my domain of expertise, you know, that is just, you know, very much like one approach is the only way to do it, but it's objectively not the only approach, right? And you're not doomed to failure if you don't do that. And yet it's framed as such, I feel some kind of way about it, right? So again, my play with this episode is just for us all to remember that everyone is trying to sell us something, right? And viewing things through that lens.
And if you want to buy the thing, amazing, fucking amazing. But just know that the person is making a case for that thing because they want you to buy that thing, right? Do I think that people have good intentions and they want to help others? Yes. Do I think that maybe they've also convinced themselves of this fact? I'm like, yeah, I really do want to help people.
Yes. I also think that maybe they've whether or not it's objectively true. Do I think that many of these big names in the space put way more fucking effort into marketing the offer and selling it as compared to the amount of responsibility that they actually take, and in most cases they do not take, for actually getting people those results? 100% fucking yes.
Way more effort, in my opinion, into selling than into making sure people get an outcome with it. And maybe a bit of convincing themselves of like, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. And you're like, yeah, but you can do other things.
You can make sure the horse was thirsty in the first place. Oh, do you just like forcing water in front of it? You know what I mean? You know what I mean? I haven't thought that analogy fully through, but you know what I'm saying. So again, as consumers, we just need to be aware of that.
And for what it's worth, I think we can make a case for something. I know we can make a case for something without making a caricature of it. Everyone is always making a case for something.
I'm making a case for this approach. Everyone is trying to sell you something, right? I'm not right now, but like at some point I'll probably sell something. And I think the most important thing for us to do is just to be aware of it.
That's all. All right. That is all for today.
As always, my friends, endlessly, endlessly, one more time, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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