#10: Finding Clarity Amidst Conflicting Advice: Making Smart Business Decisions

In this solo episode, Alyssa Lang covers the overwhelming noise of business advice online and explores how integrity, transparency, and holistic support are essential for standing out in today’s crowded landscape. Alyssa breaks down the pitfalls of “one-size-fits-all” solutions, shares insights on how to communicate value without pressure, and offers actionable reflections for business owners who want to foster genuine relationships and long-term success!

In this episode you’ll hear:

• Why there is so much pressure and noise online about “the one thing” that will change your business
• How to spot and avoid making exaggerated claims in your own marketing
• What questions to ask before giving or taking business advice
• How projecting personal experiences can skew advice and impact others’ decisions

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @magneticprofits.

For more information about The Magnetic Millionaire Podcast or interest in our services or offers visit our resources below:

Visit our website: magneticprofits.com

Check out our courses: magneticprofits.com/services

Check out our podcast page: magneticprofits.com/podcast

Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-lang-mb

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Transcript

 Anyone else feel like there's just so much noise online and just so many people claiming that their thing that they're sailing and their thing that they do or what they offer is the thing that will change the game for you. I feel you.

This is The Magnetic Millionaire Show, the podcast for women skilling past seven figures who want more clarity, more freedom, more profit, and less doing things just because everyone else is. This isn't another business podcast recycling the same tired advice Here you'll get real numbers, real strategies, and real vulnerability.

It's where strategic insight meets unapologetic ambition without the gatekeeping, it's made specifically for women who aren't afraid to go against the grain. I'm your host, Alyssa Lang, a three times founder fractional CFO Business advisor, millionaire, and a woman who always has done things on my terms, and I'm here to help you do the same.

Let's dive in and build your next million on your terms.​

 So if you're listening to this and that got you hooked, I'm excited for this episode.



I actually did not do any planning whatsoever. Typically, sometimes I'll write down like a couple bullet points so I don't forget what to, what I wanna cover or what I wanna talk about in these podcast episodes. But today was a little bit different and mostly because I was recently scrolling through my phone, which lately I've been doing way more than usual, so not proud of, it's something that I'm actually currently working on is.

Proactively trying not to scroll or go through things, but I tend to do it when life is life lifeing. So I kind of wanna dive into why I am even bringing up this topic, and if you're feeling like this is happening all around you as well, I would love to also bring in some insight around how you can avoid doing this and making people feel like, like yours is the only end all, be all thing that can fix everything in their whole entire business.

So this is coming up for me because as I was kind of scrolling through my phone, I realized how many people, like how many people with like a copywriting business, then a designer business, and then a brand business. And then over here we've got an accounting business. There's like so many different people all saying the same thing.

They're not obviously all talking about the same exact thing. But what I'm saying is like the same premise, the same idea, the same theory. And that whole theory is if you just buy my thing. It will be the thing that's going to change your business, and if you don't buy that thing, you will not get to where you need to go.

And here's my 2 cents on a little bit of that. And I'd love to know your 2 cents about this too, because I think that this is probably something that a lot of you guys feel as well, and you might not also be, might not also realize that you might be doing it as well in your own content. So I would kind of take a step back and like look at your own content, your own newsletter, your own resources, whatever you're doing.

And especially if like you're kind of detached from that. So for example, I have a social media team and so they mostly run that show for me, but sometimes I like to go back in and kind of make sure our message is pretty clear, that we're not like harping on people in a certain way. But I'd love to challenge you to go look at and review what it is that you're putting out there.

I deeply believe that we all have something to offer that can change someone's business. Like seriously, everything can change someone's business. Obviously what we do sometimes can have a little bit more impact than what someone else can do, but it also depends on their viewpoint of what is the most important thing.

So I'll give you an example of this. Let's just say that you are a very new beginning business then. Typically, the thing that's gonna be the most successful for your business right now is most likely in the marketing space. It's somewhere in sales and marketing where you can get your name out there and start building rapport for the business to start to really build and scale it.

Now, if you're more. Tenured, and you've been in business for, let's just say five years, and you've got the sales, you've got the marketing down, the things are working really well, but then yet at the end of the day, you're finding that maybe the operations is just not working really well for you guys.

Maybe you're just tired of being the one that everybody on the team is looking at or looking to. Then maybe the most important thing for you at that time would be more operation support. Maybe it's more leadership support. But I will say that when we make these like crazy claims that my one thing is gonna be the thing that you need and nothing else.

You don't need anything else in the business is such a crazy claim to me because I genuinely believe that we all have something to give and we all have something. It depends on who's receiving it, but when we put this like pressure on people to feel like, oh my God, I'm not paying attention to my branding right now.

Like obviously we can all do better at everything. Absolutely. But. There's so much of us and so many of us that will sit here and get very distracted really easily because we've somehow been fear mongered. And sometimes it's not intentional. That's not usually what I'm saying, but what I mean is like sometimes it makes people feel this.

Innate pressure that didn't exist before, which is not always a bad thing. I do believe that there is a time and place when someone needs to be made aware of a problem they didn't know existed. I do believe that there is a time and place for that, but it's not in every piece of content. It's not every little thing that someone does, and it shouldn't be where everybody's saying the same thing about how their thing is gonna be the thing that if you don't invest in this one thing, nothing will change.

And the other thing I kind of wanted to. Talk through. And like I said, I did not even like script any of this. I didn't even put any bullet points. I don't even usually script my episodes, but I definitely usually write bullet points so I don't get distracted. So this might go off on a little bit of a tangent here and there, but one of the things that I kind of wanted to bring up is, like I mentioned before, I would take a step back and see how are you using your own language to make people feel a certain way.

Because right now a lot of things are shifting and I think everybody's aware of that. Um, AI is changing the game for a lot of things and people need to be adapting and shifting, but I can't even make the claim to say, you know, if you don't implement ai, you'll never be successful. 'cause that might not be true.

Right? It depends on so many different scenarios. There's so many different things. Also, if someone that you're receiving this sort of advice or this sort of guidance from is telling you that this is a thing that's gonna change the game for you. And they're so confident in that I am genuinely curious if they're just generically posting that or if they've talked with you one-on-one because in my opinion, a really good advisor, a really good person who actually has.

The generosity to support you in in their fullest capacity is someone who is not going to immediately claim that this is the thing because I sell it. This is the thing that's gonna change the game for you. A really good advisor, a really good coach, a really good support system, a really good service should be asking you a lot of questions before they give you that advice.

So when I see people making these sorts of claims saying that this one thing that I sell in particular. One that feels very biased because obviously all you're gonna talk about is your thing that you could sell and why that is the best thing that's ever existed when I wish more people would actually highlight things that might not even be the thing that they sell.

And so this is something that I really pride myself in as a business advisor here at Magnetic Profits. There's a lot of times when people come to get on a call with me or wanna work with the firm or wanna have a conversation or wanna have a strategize with them or whatever that might look like. And I will ask him a series of questions, and it won't just be one or two, it's typically 10.

It's a lot. And sometimes I'm asking for data and stats and information, and when I'm doing that, I'm typically analyzing every little component of everything you're saying, to be able to give the strategic advice that you need. To take you to the next level. And sometimes that's not with our firm.

Sometimes that's not with me. Sometimes that's with partnering with someone that, one of our referral partners that we are obsessed with, that we think that this thing right now is gonna be a full support for you. And I wish that a lot more business owners had that integrity. And if you do have that integrity, I want to be your friend because I am huge on integrity.

I'm huge on. Being in alignment with working with people that I know like trust and have seen results from. And to me, I would way rather h help someone get to a result, even if it wasn't because of my doing. And I would love for you to reflect on what does that look like for you If you're making these claims that this one thing on, you know, maybe it's a public social media post.

And you're saying like to whoever's reading this, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where it reaches, whoever reads it. This is gonna be the one thing that changes your life. This will be the one thing that will change your whole entire business. Nothing else matters. Then you need to make sure that you have done the research and the work to make sure that whoever is reading that.

Has all the answers they need to make that happen, whether that's through you or someone else. I don't think that any one thing is the answer for some something or for someone in their business. I genuinely believe that we typically have things that are breaking all at the same time in the business or things that are wrong, or gaps or areas that we can fill or problems or whatever you might wanna look at this as.

But it's a matter of identifying what the most important thing is, and I believe that. It's not necessarily anyone's duty. 'cause I will never say that someone like owes something to someone. But I genuinely wish that more people took the time to say, you know what? It's actually not us right now. What I'm hearing from you is this, and as much as I would be so happy to have you as a client, you're like a dream client of mine, I don't believe that this is the right fit for you.

So I'll give you an example of this. If someone is coming to you and they're like, and let's just say that you're a website designer. And they're like, I just want to sell more. I just want more things to be sold. We're in a really bad cash crunch. I just don't know what to do. And I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed and I just feel like maybe if I just redo my branding, uh, all, all of a sudden just make a bunch of money on one side of the coin, you're probably really excited 'cause you're like, oh my gosh, they'll come work with me and we can totally help them.

It's a whole thing. But in reality, taking the time to just ask a couple more questions to ask 'em, like, what type of cash crunch are you in? I'm not looking for you to tell me your whole life story, but I'm just asking you because I wanna better understand if maybe we're just not the right fit right now.

I'm not saying that we're not the right fit in the future, but a lot of the times, the reality is if you were to come to us to do this branding, usually people don't start to see an uptick in sales for about six to eight months. But if you need a yesterday solution, it's not gonna be us. And I think that there's a lot of you who listen to the podcast because I mean, if you follow me then you probably have integrity.

Um. And I value that within my audience and within what I do and the clients that I attract as well, is I really deeply hope that you are really guiding someone to say, you know what? I would love this. As much as I'd love to say it is me and it is us, that we would love to support you. It's just not the right time, but I'd love to follow up with you in a couple of days.

That's a very, very powerful line that you can give to someone and allow someone the opportunity to kind of like release. And I think that this is where true relationships, true relationships are built in business is when we carry our integrity so high that I am just here to make sure that you are successful.

I am just here to make sure that no matter if it's me or someone else. That you get the support that you need because I truly believe in the success of you and your business, and I think that there are ways that we can infuse these things into the business. Not one of us have a thing that if they just do this one thing, we'll change everything and all the things.

It's usually a compounding matter of multiple things that happen, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, that need to happen simultaneously, that allow things to fall in the right places when sometimes people might attribute it to like, you know, their ads agency or they might attribute it to their copywriter.

Or sometimes, you know, KPIs will definitely tell us this. So key performance indicators. And metrics will typically tell us where things are stemming from, but usually everything is a compilation of a lot of different things kind of coming together and falling into place. So how can we use this as a reflection point and how can you kind of cut through the noise if you are that person?

So if you've ever listened to any sort of podcast or anything. So we'll use like, um, I dunno, maybe like a marketing podcast. Of course, all they're gonna tell you is that marketing is gonna be the end all, be all solution, and that that's all they're pushing and that's all they're ever doing. My favorite podcasts that I like to listen to are the ones where they're talking about business as a whole, but they sell one small sliver of support for your whole entire business holistically.

What I mean by this is, let's just say it's a business podcast that allows for opportunities to talk about systems and team and operations and, you know, mindset and hiring and like all of these different components. But then yet they're like, Hey, this is the truth. This is what we're sharing. This is what we've seen.

But our zone of genius is only supporting in the hiring. Like that's all we do. But we wanted to make sure to highlight all these different areas by maybe bringing in experts. Um, sometimes we're just not experts in all those areas, which is totally fine. But I think that there is beauty and power in someone bringing together all these different components to showcase how you are layered in.

To this beautiful magic of business. Sometimes when we're looking at the business as a whole, we don't realize all the moving parts and components until we're overwhelmed, until we're burnt out, until we're trying to redefine the company. And those are my favorite types of podcasts because it's not always the same information about the same thing.

It's like really hooking in. The reality of how that one particular thing can affect all parts of the business, or how all parts of the business can affect that one thing. So one thing I really loved about this podcast, and I've gotten a lot of compliments on this since we started this, and I believe that we launched it in the beginning of June, and it's, so, it's about a month now that we've had this podcast, which is crazy.

One of the things that's a big compliment is a lot of people are like, it's so refreshing to just hear the actual stats, the actual data, the actual things that happened. Even though you don't have a solution for everyone as far as like a service, and that's something that I really pride myself in. I think that this is.

I mean, I can advise in a lot of different areas of the business, but there are a lot of moments. I'll give you a really good example. Our very first podcast episode, it's about my 446 K launch that I did at my Workflow Queen company. I literally share launch tactics. I literally share, uh, marketing strategies, things that we did, tax breaks, downs, like literally everything.

I even shared all the numbers that we brought in and things that we, you know, spent money on, and what did we profit and how much did we pay ourselves. Like I went through so much. However, I had so many people reach out and be like, I'm, I'm so curious, like what can I pay you? And I'm like, well, what do you mean?

And they're like. I want to pay you because you shared all this stuff about launching. I'm like, oh, I'm not a launch strategist. But if you listen to the podcast episode, you'll hear that I shouted out Alex Baden, who I learned how to do all this stuff from. Um, you'll hear that I talked about Dream Pro courses who helped me create the program, and I think that there's beauty in just sharing the story, even if it might not feel like it ties into your service or ties into the thing that you're selling.

Because it helps people in a way to build almost that relationship that's a little bit more in depth. There's a lot of times in future episodes that I will literally share with you guys some things that I'm like, I can't help you with this, but I'm just sharing it with you based off of like what I've experienced over time.

This is how I fixed it. Here's the stats, here's the data, here's how we did it, here's how we overcame it. But if you want support, you know, here's some people that I'm gonna connect you with because I can't be a jack of all trades, but I can share my story. I can share. My insight. So sometimes when I come across podcasts or or things that people share, and it's only about that particular service and that's it, which while I do understand that there is power in staying in your lane, I think that we could still healthily.

I. If that's even a word, stay in our lane, but also guide people in a way that says, you know, even though I'm telling you that this is something that's my zone of genius, it's not the only thing that you need in your business that will shift your life. There's so many other components, but they might not be my zone of genius, but here's who I recommend for that.

I think people remember people who introduce them to other people and who can hype other people up and. That is something that was really big for me here on the podcast was like, there's gonna be episodes guys where you're probably gonna be like, I don't wanna listen to this. It might be about my personal life, it might be about, you know, my travel trailer and how I've had to unhitch and re-hit it all the time and like what I do with it.

I wanted this podcast to be a voice and an opportunity for me to just share whatever the hell came up for me, the trials and tribulations of business. Even if some of 'em I can't, you can't hire me to solve for you. Um, if I can't, I usually will recommend you to someone, right? I try my best to stay in my lane, and as a business advisor, I can look at the business holistically and give a lot of advice in different areas.

But I do believe in full transparency, and I, I really hope that this inspires you to be a little bit more transparent. And, and if you don't know the answer to something, um, and that you want to be able to bring in more guests or more people to be able to support you in areas that allow for people to not feel the pressure, that like your business and your service and your offer is the only thing that's gonna make them successful in business, because that's not true.

All of us play a part. All of us play a part. So while I'm. I'm scrolling through my Instagram and this is all I see is if you, if you don't do this branding, your business is going to fail. If you don't highlight this, your business is gonna die. Like if you don't go this area, it's not gonna work. And I just don't think it's fair.

I. I think that every strategy works. It just depends on the circumstances, the timing, the person who's implementing it, and so much in between. I was recently at a, uh, friend of mine, uh, who's actually also a client of mine. We were at, for her birthday. We went to, uh, it's like a spa. I forgot the name of it, but anyways, it's a big spa that's in Southern California.

I'm like blanking on the name right now, even though I can like see it in my mind anyways, for her birthday, it was right before I left for my big trip. It was like literally the day before and. There was someone there who was invited by her as well, and she was an accountant. So I'm also in the accounting space, like we have a lot that we can connect on and stuff.

And during one of our conversations, she had said something that was surprising to me coming from like an accountant, but one thing that she had mentioned was. I don't think Profit First Works like just blurted it out while we were having a conversation around Profit First and there was, mind you, three accountants at the table.

Um, and as this kind of came up, I immediately realized that this is what we like to call projections, and this is only coming from a really loving and beautiful place for them. This is what we typically call projecting because maybe it didn't work for them, or they've maybe seen it like once or twice here and there, but it's not fair to make a claim that unless you can 100% say that every person who's ever tried it, it failed.

Right. And so the reason I'm bringing this up to you guys is that when we put people in this position to feel like that thing does not work because they look at you like an authority and people are not questioning it, it's not fair. Or if you say, this is the only strategy that works, then that's not fair.

And so as I dug deeper into that conversation with her, that accountant during that, that, um, time together. I was like, well, why do you believe it doesn't work? And she was just like, I just don't think it works for a lot of other businesses and I think that there's better ways to do it. And I'm like, okay, so your solution is that there are other options, but I know a lot of people that this sort of money methodology through Profit First with myself being included in the other accountant who is there that it does work.

And so it's a matter of. Whether we want to project on other people or not, and we have to remember that when we're in business, we have to not project our own feelings onto people because it makes 'em feel like those are facts when in actual, in actuality, they aren't facts. They're the way that you feel about a certain instance because of a scenario or two.

Maybe have disproved it to you in particular if you're at least gonna make a claim like that. I think it's really important to make sure to back it with, this is why I believe it doesn't work. Because when someone comes to me and says, immediately that doesn't work, I'm gonna question, why do you believe that that doesn't work?

Because that's not fair for other people to hear and listen and, and sit in on and have this assumption that, like, imagine if that. Because my client was sitting right next to me and my client who brought up the conversation around Profit First. Imagine if right after that I didn't question it, and she just was like, well, it doesn't work.

And then I'm over here like, Hey, like I really believe that Profit First does work and it could change your vision. Well, this person over here said it doesn't. You know, people start to believe those things. When I believe deep down, every single strategy in business works. It's a matter of how it's going to work for you, how you're going to implement it, how you're gonna stay consistent with it.

'cause I do know some people who profit first doesn't work for them, or it hasn't created success for them. And that's because their idea of what they thought it was gonna create for them didn't happen. And so that's also another reality as well, is that sometimes we look at things and then we, we anticipate.

A specific outcome is gonna happen, but yet that outcome doesn't happen, so therefore it doesn't work, and that's not usually the case. You may have painted this picture in your mind of this idea of what could have happened, and so this happens a lot with the way that we talk to our audience. It's the way that we educate people who are listening to us and the people who are following us.

If you guys have super fans, like I have super fans. Especially at my workflow queen company, they take everything I say so literal, which is great, and I love that. But I have to like constantly remind them that like, just because I've chosen this does not mean that this over here doesn't work. I'm gonna share why I believe this thing right here doesn't work and the why behind it.

And I think that this is where it's something that you guys can infuse as well, is like. Don't just say this does not work, but why doesn't it work? Or why do you believe that it doesn't work? 'cause remember, it's probably your projection of why you believe that doesn't work. So I'll give you an example.

Um, maybe you're an ads agency and you're like, organic traffic doesn't work. Like, I'm pretty sure you probably wouldn't say that 'cause most smart agencies would be like, they work together. But let's just say that for some crazy reason, you're like, organic traffic doesn't work and only paid traffic works and that's all you say.

And you don't take the time to explain that and try to like break it down for someone. Or if you don't try to get clear and say organic traffic does work, but Facebook ads traffic can amplify the way you do business. But at the same time, you can amplify your organic if you did X, Y, Z, and so. If you can, I'm gonna really challenge you today to take a step back and look at all the content, all the different things, the pillars, the everything that you have, the way you talk to clients, and ask yourself, am I projecting this or am I explaining why I believe that this is truth and why I believe that someone else should follow along for this truth?

And I think that this will go a very, very long way in your success in business. Um, I'll give you another example. So. I mean, I am obsessed with Asana. I actually teach Asana at my Workflow Queen brand for other accountants and bookkeepers. They can take my exact templates that we use within my own firm here at Magnetic.

And I'm a firm believer in Asana. But we have like fellow softwares out there. We've got things like Keeper in the accounting space that a lot of people are like, well, why wouldn't you use this? And I'm like, to be honest, like. I think keeper's great, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me because I don't like the UX design.

My team doesn't like it. It's clunky and overwhelming, but however it can work for you. And I always tell people like test it. Right? And it's the same thing with people being like, you can't use notion in this way. I say this sometimes, um, when people always ask me like, do you use notion for your accounting firm?

And I always tell 'em like, yes, but we don't use it for task management. But I'll always explain to them. 'cause I'll be like, why? Like, why not just use it for task management? And I always have to explain to people the reason why is because the repetitive nature at which we constantly operate within an accounting space, it is every month.

It's the same repeating process every month. There's a lot of compliance into it. And I don't believe that notion is built in the capacity it needs to be without a lot of manual work in order to make it happen. Is it not possible? Obviously like it's possible 100%, but that is what my 2 cents are and I always like to tell everyone like, this is my 2 cents.

So I would highly recommend that if you haven't really taken the time to stop, to listen to the language at which you're using when you're talking, it will go a really, really long way. We're heavily opinionated. I think it's okay to be human and have. These sorts of conversations, but I believe that like we forget sometimes, and I do it myself, I'm not perfect in any capacity that I forget that I'm saying things that people will take.

So literally, if I don't take the time to explain why I've chosen that route, I think it's not about the fact that you can't say something doesn't work. I think it's about saying it doesn't work, but explaining why you believe that, which takes things. To the next level and allows someone the opportunity to understand it and better consume it and better decide, um, that way they can do their research.

And obviously it's the due diligence of the person listening that can therefore go do the research to make sure it works. So if you've been feeling like there's so many people, like harping on you that like you have to do it with this way. 'cause I'm definitely feeling that pressure right now. Please come on Instagram and like, let's have a voice note chat.

I love this conversation. It's at magnetic profits on Instagram. I just. I, I feel like I'm feeling it a lot and I don't know what it is lately that every time I'm scrolling it feels like, almost like desperate. And I'm not calling anybody desperate. Like here I'm saying like sometimes I'm reading where it's like, man, like all you're telling me is I have to do it this way.

If I don't, it will not be successful. And I just find it to be a lot sometimes. Um, I think that genuinely, like, I think there's a lot of pressure in this space right now. I think. I don't think I know this mostly because of my accounting, my accounting side of business, and seeing a lot of like the shifts that are happening within our own clients.

But I will say the shifts are happening because of the types of industry we're currently working with. But therefore we're now shifting our industries we're working with to work with different industries that are more like, have a little bit more opportunity as of right now or, or leveraging the changes that are happening in the market and the, the industries or in different industries right now.

And so I hope this was a little bit more organized and my brain probably spewed out all that information. So if you stayed listening for this long and you feel the pressure of everyone claiming that this one thing is gonna be the thing and nothing else is gonna work, um, please feel free to question them.

Question them. It's okay. It's not like it's rude. You're not being mean. You're just like, I just genuinely wanna understand why your thing is better than everybody else's and why. I should pay attention more here because right now, I think now is the time to be more selective than ever on who you're following, who you're learning from, who you're listening to, who you're surrounded by.

And I think that there's so much more noise than usual. And if I were to choose, I wanna be surrounded by people who are not gonna project on me and who will? Explain to me in a way that makes sense on why they've chosen a certain way or why they don't believe that works or why they do believe it works.

Because I believe that the why goes a really, really long way. If you've been feeling that, come chat with me on Instagram. Uh, let me know what you guys want me to talk about on the podcast. It's always a really fun to do these podcast episodes and fun when they kind of just come outta nowhere. But I feel like it kind of needed to be said 'cause I feel like a lot of people aren't saying it.

So I will chat with you guys next week on the podcast.

 Thanks for listening to The Magnetic Millionaire Podcast. I hope you walked away with a lot of different tips and strategies that you can infuse into your business. And help you hit your next million. If you're vibing with the show, do us a favor and leave us a rating and review. It helps more bold women like you find us.

And if there's any topics that you want me to cover a little bit more of or something that you wish I dived a little bit deeper into sliding to my dms at Magnetic Profits on Instagram, I'm always listening and I'm always wondering what you guys need a little bit more of so I can help you to build the wealth and the journey that you desire.