Welcome to the Business Blast for Me podcast, where we question the sacred truths of the online business space and the reverence with which they're held. I'm your host, sarah Kahn, speaker, strategic consultant and BS busting badass. Join me each week as we challenge the norms, trends and overall bullshit status quo of entrepreneurship to uncover what it really takes to build the business that you want to build in a way that honors you, your life and your vision for what's possible, and maybe piss off a few gurus along the way. So if you're ready to commit Business Blast for Me, let's do it. Hello, hello, blast femurs.
Speaker 1I generally record solo episodes on Thursdays, usually the week before I drop them, and this episode is kind of off the cuff. I didn't expect to record this, but I'm feeling some kind of way today and I didn't know whether I should write a post about this or a series of stories or what. And then I remembered hey, sarah, you have a podcast. You can actually talk about this uncensored, unfiltered, and get all of your thoughts out in whatever timeframe you need. Now the last four days and, to be honest with you, the last four years plus, but the last four days specifically there have been a lot of conversations in my spaces around just how tired people are, not only of the online business space itself and life, and they're mentally and emotionally drained and exhausted, but the conversation the last week or so has really centered around business owners behaving badly. Some of the conversations were the results of last week's podcast episode where I talked about my experience in a job interview process, and some of the conversations were the results of other people that I follow and am friends with, stuff that they shared in their stories or on Facebook or just in group chats that we have, and there's this collective exhaustion and frustration and, just like I've had it-ness with the way a lot of people are doing business in this space. We're tired of the programs, for example, programs that really have no business being programs.
Speaker 1I've talked about programs and how programs these days. So many of them don't seem to live up to the hype their own hype. You're not getting what you were promised you would get. I had a program last year maybe it was early last year or the end of the previous year, I can't remember now but they made a lot of really big promises. They made the promise of getting the opportunity to pitch a TED talk. They made promises of the opportunity to be on stage at an event in New York and all of these big promises. And when it came down to it, bait and Switched us and said, actually you got to pay extra for these and you got to do this and you got to do that. And so there were a lot of really unhappy customers. And it's not new. There was another program that same sort of thing, really expected high touch, given the investment, high touch support, and it was just months of self study and sorted out yourself and occasionally we'll check in on you. And I get that.
Speaker 1I'm talking specifically about programs and I also get that, as a consumer of things, you are responsible for how much you engage in a program. If you want more support, you reach out. If you want to understand something with a little bit more depth, you book a coaching call Like I get it. I get that there is a necessity for the investor of the program, the client, to actually step up and say here's what I need. So I'm not absolving us as consumers of the responsibility that we very clearly have. And too many purveyors of coaching programs, masterminds, programs in general, where you are being taught to do a thing or there's supposed to be some kind of outcome. You all have to stop selling shit, and it's not just programs, it's service providers too.
Speaker 1I've had conversations with people sharing stories around being pushed to invest in things that they are not ready for, that really do not have any kind of bearing on the outcome that they're looking for, but they've been convinced otherwise and it's easy to sit here and say, well, you shouldn't be naive. And it's easy to sit here and say, well, you should know better, absolutely. But there's a reason why pain point marketing is so prevalent in the space because it works. You have people who understand. If you can shame someone or make them feel just bad enough about their life or their business, they will spend whatever. They don't have to work with you because you're giving them the promise of something better, of something that they aspire to. The entire freaking online business space is predicated on this, and it is so frustrating to hear stories like this because a lot of the time, people don't have the money to spend, but the person talks a good game. They talk such a good game and, like I said, yeah, we can blame the person and say, well, you should have known better, but listen when you are in pain, you will do anything to end that pain, and I think this is what a lot of business owners know and what they're good at when it comes to marketing and selling. They're really good at making you feel like it's hopeless, unless you work with me.
Speaker 1And I have felt a real exhaustion in the last few months around trying to be the voice of reason in the space, and I know a lot of my peers who ride the same wagon as me have been feeling that collective exhaustion too right, this feeling that sometimes it feels like it would be less painful and frustrating to just repeatedly throw myself down the stairs. I've often thought about creating a program that was kind of like a mini intro to business, right Cause there's so many people coming into the online space still and just creating a program that's like here's absolutely what you need to know, here are the fundamentals of what you need to know and here's what you need to be aware of, and here are some of the really abhorrent practices in the space and here's what you can do instead. Like I want to create a course like this, but I have often felt like because what I have to share is not sexy and it's not Instagram worthy and it's not going to get you to six figures in six months or whatever the fucking line is these days. I saw an ad the other day about how we should normalize making eight figures in business. Fuck you, that's all I'm going to say about that. Like seriously, there are people out there right now who can't even make four figures a month consistently and you're over here telling me I got to make eight fucking figures a year. Piss the fuck off with that shit, please.
Speaker 1But I've wanted to create a course like this and, because I know it's not sexy, what I teach is very pragmatic. What I help with people with is managing their expectations and understanding that, yeah, you can actually have whatever you want. Just, it might take a little bit longer or it might have to be a different path than somebody else, and in some very rare cases, it's incredibly unrealistic. You're going to get that and here's why. But here's what we can do. So it's a very realistic approach based in reality, cause I don't like arguing with reality. But I don't create the course because there are too many people who like arguing with it, who don't want to live in reality, because sometimes reality is painful, it's not fun, and social media is so good at making you feel like you were the only person living in that particular reality, and so lately I find myself reassuring a lot of people that you are not alone. You are not the only person going through this.
Speaker 1A lot of business owners right now are struggling. A lot of business owners are feeling the pinch. A lot of business owners not even business owners, just people in life in general are feeling it, and I've been lucky enough I say lucky with air quotes. I guess I'm lucky enough to have been in the back end of businesses quite a few businesses actually Ones where people are not making a lot of money and ones where people are purportedly making six and seven figures a year, and I've seen the truth of it. I've seen how hard it is for them to keep up that level of income. And it's revenue. It's not net A lot of the time. Yeah, they're making six figures, but it's revenue. It's not what they're taking home. I was on a call yesterday where a coach shared that she was in a space with another coach it was like a mastermind type of space and this business owner was making $7.8 million a year, but it was costing them $7.7 million a year to run their business and to earn the 7.8. So, when it comes down to it, yeah, they have a multi-million dollar business, but their net worth is probably less than six figures Might be mid to high five figures a year.
Speaker 1And I think that's what I really want people to understand and what I have been trying and what so many people have been trying to share over the last many years that you're not alone and that people are not always telling the truth, not because they are trying to manipulate, not because they are intentionally trying to pull the wool over your eyes. I mean, there's always people who are, but they're few and far between. The vast majority of people are just afraid of reality, because reality is not always fun. Not everyone's reality is a fun and happy place to be. I haven't taken any new clients since probably August of last year. It was mostly intentional because, even though there were a lot of things I wanted to do and a lot of things I wanted to sell, my heart wasn't in it. Because of this collective frustration, because of this like overwhelming sense of what the fuck am I even doing.
Speaker 1And I know a lot of people feel that way because I've had conversations with people who feel that way and, to be honest with you, taking the break has really helped, because I don't think what we need more of is education. I mean, there's always gonna be a place for it, for sure, and it's not something I say we get rid of. But maybe it's gotta stop being a priority to educate people when it comes to business owners behaving badly. Maybe it's time to stop trying to get them to change their ways, because not everybody wants to do things in a way that is comfortable for other people, right. So maybe it's gotta be about stopping educating those people on why their tactics are skeezy or asking them to change.
Speaker 1Maybe it's not enough to educate people on the skeezy tactics that are in the space and ask them to beware. Maybe it's not enough to try to change the system. Maybe it's not enough to try to circumvent the system. Maybe what we need to start doing is helping people stop feeling so fucking desperate, to stop feeling insecure, to stop feeling like they don't know what they want or that they don't know how they can possibly get it. Maybe that's where we start doubling down our focus, and this is the work that I have been traditionally doing on the back end of things. When I work with people, we work on that, but I've spent so much time shouting into the void about why certain tactics are wrong and how people are taking advantage of others.
Speaker 1And yes, it's still important to raise awareness, but maybe if fewer people felt like they had no other options, it could be different. Maybe it's got to be less about here's why the online space sucks and here's what these people are doing wrong. And maybe the focus needs to be I get that you want to do a thing. Here are the number of ways that you can do it the many, many number of ways. Now let's figure out which of these ways feels best for you and which of these ways feels aligned with how you want to show up in the world. And that has to start with really leaning into your self-image and your self-esteem and your purpose. Too many people are still coming into this space not truly knowing what their goals are and then having other people tell them what they should be.
Speaker 1When you sit down and think about why you started a business, my guess for the vast majority of you is that it was not about making six figures, or making seven figures or fucking eight figures. Maybe it was not about being an influencer in the space. Maybe it was not about the job title that you're a VA or an OBM or a DOO or a coach or a consultant. Maybe you came into the space because you wanted to be heard, because you wanted to be seen, you wanted to be respected, you wanted something. You wanted something that belonged to you. Maybe you came into the space because you wanted something to call your own. Maybe you came into the space because you genuinely wanted to create change and you got sucked into.
Speaker 1This machine of. This is the only way you can thrive in the online business space. This is the only way to thrive as an entrepreneur. These are the success markers, and anything else means you are a fraud and you can't make it. Maybe it's time to go back and ask yourself why the heck did I even do this thing? What was it that I wanted when I became an entrepreneur? Because I think, if we allow ourselves to really lean into the truth of why we're here and we allow ourselves to let that be enough, to let that be valid, I think we can start to build the kind of resilience that we need to avoid, ignore and dismiss a lot of the bullshit that we are still seeing and that will continue to be in the space, despite the fact that there are so many people doing good work. And maybe that's where it needs to start.
Speaker 1And so this week, I invite you to find a comfortable space. Turn off all your distractions, your phone, your devices, your television. Close the door, do what you need to do to get really comfortable. Pull out a paper and a pen, because there's magic in writing things by hand and just ask yourself why did you start your business? What does it mean to you? What did you leave the nine to five, the traditional workspace, for? What were you missing so much in your life that you left your job to start a business, which is not a small undertaking by any stretch of the imagination? Why are you here?
Speaker 1And I want you to write it down, and I want you to be really, really clear, really clear about what it meant to you to be here. And then I want you to ask yourself okay, if that's why I'm here, is there anything that I'm doing right now that doesn't align with that reason? And whatever comes up, I want you to sit with it and I want you to let it be okay, to let the truth of why you're here be okay, and you're going to start seeing more content from me around exactly this Around, working on those very wounds and insecurities and the instability of all the things that make it hard for us to say no when we know better, because we get caught up in the emotion of a thing. We are at a wonderful tipping point where we get to decide how we are going to take things into the future of not just entrepreneurship and online business as business owners. So I want you to keep an eye out for that and if you need a safe space to come in and invent, to come in and ask questions, to share your frustrations, or you're just like hey, sarah, I really want to stop feeling so insecure about things and I don't know where to start.
Speaker 1My DMs are always open. All right, I will talk to you next week. Just remember. You are not alone. You never were. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Business Blast for Me podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode, but in the meantime, help assist her out by subscribing and, if you're feeling extra sassy rating this podcast, and don't forget to share the podcast with others. Head over to BusinessBlastforMePodcastcom to connect with us and learn more. Thanks for listening and remember you can have success without the BS.