Ep. 136: 2021 Reflections & 2022 Predictions (plus Thank You's!)
In this 2021 recap, I share some of the highs, a lot of the deep soul-searching work I did and revelations that came out of it, and some marketing predictions for 2022. This is probably the most real, raw, and fire-y episode I've ever recorded. Honestly, some long-time listeners might be upset with what I have to say, but I'm ok with that. Because this episode shares my journey of revisiting my truth, what I uncovered, checking in with my values and mission, and choosing the direction I want to take going forward. It also includes thank yous to the many, many people who helped me and supported me in 2021. None of us succeeds alone! Thank you to my clients and listeners. I'd love it if you'd share my podcast with a friend so I can welcome more phenomenal people to the Sell it, Sister! community in 2022!
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If you've been in business for a minute, do you have a plan for profit that won't lead to burnout? I'm sure that you have goals, but what about the big picture view of what will take to reach them without working yourself into exhaustion? Because that is a different story.
One reason having a successful business can be so tricky is that once we finally start getting clients, new problems, start to pop up because now you're juggling working on your business while also having to work in it. And it's really easy to lose track of how you can keep all the plates spinning while trying to hit higher revenue money.
So usually what ends up happening is you try to create new offers to bring in more money, but then you're super busy creating, promoting, and delivering them, or you're extending your working hours into your personal time and it's making you salty, or you started dropping some of the plates and it does not feel good at all.
And there's zero way it's sustainable either. Or maybe it's a combo of all three, the first step to fixing this is looking at the numbers, but not like a giant overwhelming spreadsheet or anything like that. Just simple data that is the most important for moving the needle forward in a more supportive way.
And that is why I have a free workbook and many training just for you. It really is super quick, super short, but massively impactful on how you'll be able to make profit based decisions moving forward in your business. And did I mention it's free, I think at it, but it's worth saying again, you can find it all at bit dot L Y forward slash plan for profit.
Okay. This'll be in the show notes as well, but to get the plan for-profit guide, all you have to do is go to bit that L Y plan for profit guide, all lowercase, all one word, and you will get instant access and be able to see in a overwhelm free way, what the money makeup is for your business, and then use that to make your decisions on your next steps.
Okay. Onto the episode, welcome to the final episode of the salt sister podcast for 2021. This is my year end wrap-up. And if you follow me on Instagram, you saw, I recorded this the other day I posted and I was like, oh God, it was a little vulnerable. Should I rerecord? And everyone was like, leave it, leave it.
Um, but really the reason why I have decided to rerecord. To water it down. Uh, in fact it's just the opposite. I realized in the other one that, cause I never script my podcasts. I usually just jot down a couple notes for myself. So I remember the top things that I want to talk about. And then from there I, uh, you know, I just, I sort of riff, um, but usually I'm talking about, you know, some strategic thing and that stuff is stuff I can really talk about in, in my sleep.
Right. Forwards, backwards. Like if I'm like, oh, let me talk to you about launching. Like I could wake up from Tacoma and explain that. Um, but my, my end of year episodes are, uh, not that way. Right. They're, they're different. They're more, um, they're more of a look back. They're more introspective. They're deeper.
Excuse me. And so. I really want it to be sure I did it justice. And, um, so I went back, I added in a few more notes for myself, um, so that my ADHD brain, uh, wouldn't fully take over and get me off track because that was really, that was really what happened a couple of days ago is I started to go down some mental rabbit holes and then lost my train of thought a bit.
And I didn't want you to have to listen to something that was just filled with moments of, of be like pausing and contemplating and odd rambly bit. So I'm sure there were silly rambley bits in this one, but, but yeah, so that's, that's why I am. That's why I'm rerecording. Uh, so first things first, what a year, what a year I was telling my friend Kendra, the other day we were talking, we were talking about how 20, 21.
Actually felt harder in many ways than 2020. And, uh, you know, there could be a lot of reasons for that. Um, but it just, it, it really felt she and I both were saying that this was the year of like the deepest internal work that we've ever, ever done. Uh, it just felt, especially from like may going forward, it really just felt like everything was a reckoning with myself, like who I am at my core, who I want to be.
The kind of impact. I want to make that kind of legacy. I want to leave like all these really, really, really big, big questions. I also will say I had a lot of things I was really proud of in 2021. So this year was the first year I was able to give what felt like a really big one-time donation to an organization.
So, uh, every quarter I, how I do it is that every time I am, um, paying myself and paying my overhead and, and all of that, I always allocate a portion of my revenue. To, uh, an account that is called giving. And then at the end of every quarter, I go through and I pick several organizations, um, and I divvy up that money and give them two.
And then when I'm, when I'm on my game, I go over to my website and I remember to update my list over there. So people can see, especially the people who invest in me where some of that money is going. And it's always, uh, aligned with my values and what I'm passionate about. And this year, uh, our, uh, in our county, they started, um, uh, a group of folks started a, uh, black farmers fund modeled after the one in Detroit, which is just to the east of us.
And I knew it was coming some on our food policy council. So I knew that the GoFundMe was going to open and I had been putting money aside and I did a $2,500. Donation. And that felt really, really, really good, uh, for a bit like for like the first several days I was the, the top donor. Um, and then as some people, uh, bid more than me, or, you know, put in, um, more than me, uh, I was like, oh, that's, that's really cool.
Like, I, that's what I want next. Like I want 5,000 and then a 10,000 and then a 25,000. Right. I, I want to, um, keep increasing my one-time donations to different, uh, organizations that I'm really passionate about and do that entirely, um, through my work. So that, that is really important to me. I know it's really important to the people who invest in me.
Um, my clients are also people who, you know, they want to be able to make more in their business so that they can do really positive things with it. And so. It just felt good for a moment to be like, look at me, I'm a leaderboard. And, uh, and it's not just me, right. It wasn't just me. It was my, my clients who made that possible.
Um, so it wasn't just like a look at me. It was like a look at us, look at what we did look at how like, like feel the excitement of being like the top donor, even if it only lasts for a few days. Um, so that was really awesome. And I got to, uh, travel to Nashville and finally meet in person the amazing people from my group chat.
And that was really fun. That was a huge, huge highlight of the year. And I'm so glad, especially after a year of no travel at all, that I was able to do that. So those, those are some of the highest level highlights. Oh. And I also, um, I like upgraded all my rebellious success, all of the content and everything, my team, I worked super hard and we relaunched it and it's, I'm going all in on it, uh, in 2022.
So it's going to be the main focus of what I'm selling. I'm really excited. It's going to just keep getting better and better. I'm really so proud of this program for so many reasons. Like not just the incredible results that my clients get, but also the fact that like the other feedback that I get, like the other day, one of my clients was.
Um, posting in our, uh, we use the circle platform. And so she posted and then below, she was like, you know, I have to say, this is the most I've ever participated in any group program that I've been in. Um, and that speaks volumes, um, for what you've created. And I was like, oh my God, thank you. Like, that's, that means so much to me because it's, it's all very intentional.
Um, it's, it's happens that way on purpose. So it was so nice to hear that. And I hear things like that, um, all the times. So just stay tuned. I cannot wait, uh, for it to get even even better in 2022. So going back to the dark night of the soul of 2020, So part of living into our values as leaders. I know that I, like, I definitely view myself as a leader because not just because I've had a lot of various leadership roles, but, um, I really am like, I, it is something I'm truly proud of is the fact that, uh, I am, I am a good leader in situations where I want to be a leader.
Right. If I'm just thrown into it, like, um, might not, you know, um, be super jazzed. But if, if it's something I am passionate about, uh, I, I am a really good leader and I take leadership very seriously. And a lot of the people who I work with are leaders in their own, right. They are, uh, thought leaders and they, um, help lead their clients to incredible outcomes.
And I know that sometimes it can be hard, uh, for people to feel like, oh, I'm not, you know, I'm not a leader, but I'm definitely like the people I work with, whether they self identify as that or not, they are leaders. And, um, when, when we can see ourselves as more than just like service providers, consultants, and coaches, and more as leaders who happen to provide a service consulting or coaching, um, that is that's a big, that's a big, an important mental shift.
Um, and part of that is part of taking on the role of a leader is by regularly reflecting on our values and if we're really living into them and I categorize this a lot by our truth, right? So the, the first core principle in rebellious success in that framework is truth. So what is our truth in, in relation to what we do and why we do it and who we do it for and how it aligns with.
Our values and the values of the people that we want to serve. Like that is our truth. It's our brand promise. It's the thing that sets us apart from all of the other people who do something similar to what, to what we do. And this is good to think about from time to time, right? It's not a set it and forget it, especially like with values, right?
It's it can be easy to be like, cool. I did a values exercise. These are my values. But to, to really think like, you know, are these still my values? Does anything need to change? How am I living into those values? All of those things. Those are really important questions to periodically. Revisit. And so now that I'm in the fifth year of my current business, it felt like it was time to revisit my truth.
It was like, well, you know, why did I start? Why do I want to keep going? Does anything need to be modified? Um, what is more true to me now than it was when I began like all of those things. Right. And if you don't know, uh, the reason that I started my current business was at the end of 2016, I was really burnt out.
There was no way in my previous business that I, like, I obviously had some control over my schedule, but in the world of selling products and selling a lot, like face-to-face, there are some things that you just can't. Get out of if you want to succeed, right. You can't get out of the hustle and bustle of Q4, right.
That's like your biggest earning season, right. So you kind of have to show up and be present for that, even if you're tired. Um, you know, selling products is just a different animal. It's a different beast. Um, and there's just other, there are other things that I would have never been able to really do in a way that was the most supportive to me.
And I had been going really hard for four years. I had achieved a ton of things that were, um, you know, quote unquote, like big milestones, but I was tired also us presidential election. Um, That was really frustrating. And I just went into 2017 and I felt like, is this really the contribution that I want to be making a society?
Right. Is this really how I want to spend my time? If the world feels like more fucked than ever, what am I going to do about it? Because I am like, I love a good like bitch session, right? Like we, it's fun to vent, but I'm somebody where if it's, if it's not just like a, who I got that off my chest, I feel better.
Let's move on. Like, if it's persistent, then I'm somebody who's like, okay, I don't want to just keep bitching about this. I want to actually do something that makes a positive difference, even if it's small. And so I started to think. About, you know, what did I feel to be true at that time? And it was that, like, I had always been like the scrappy younger kid who was like, I'm gonna grow up and you know, I'm going to be an artist and I'm going to be a teacher and I won't make much money, but like, I won't be a sellout.
Right. Like I was this, you know, angsty punk rock teenager, who was like, I can be creative and, and authentic and live in my truth. Or I can be a sellout who lives a comfortable life financially. Uh there's no in-between and this is my story and I'm sticking to it and, you know, it was well-intentioned, but it was also very naive.
Um, and I, you know, always really rallied against like, you know, people with money and all of this stuff. And then at the end of 2016, early 2017, I was sort of just like, okay, These are the waters that we swim in, right? Capitalism is a thing that we, that we live with money is a tool in our society, right?
And unfortunately, the people who have more of it tend to have more say, have more leverage, have more power, have a louder voice. And it sucks and it's unfair and it's not equitable, but it's how it is. So how can I within the waters that I am swimming in, how can I do something that can kind of like bridge that gap between like what I was seeing and what I wanted to see and what I mean by that is like all of these, like rich, white, You know, SIS hat, Christian men, uh, who have a lot of money and a lot of disregard for anyone who is not like them.
And they are wielding their money and their power and their privilege to keep enhancing the lives of people like them. And to keep continually taking away rights from people who aren't. And I was just like, fuck this, I'm done. And I actually have skills and tools and knowledge that can help people make more money through the channel of entrepreneurship.
And here's why I love entrepreneurship and small business. And I go so hard for them because there is really no cap to what you can make as an entrepreneur or what your business can make. Right. Your. Maybe in some countries, there are like rules around, you know, how much you can make, but at least not like not in the U S and not in a lot of the places where my clients live.
So there's no limit. You can, if you have, uh, you know, if you're doing marketing, if you have a product, a service that people want, um, if you're speaking to the right people, if you're doing all of those things, then you can keep earning almost like an, uh, I won't say an infinite amount, but he very large amount of money, right.
More than you traditionally could in like a. Job setting and that's huge. So it means that, you know, while no, I'm not helping anyone become the next Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, but you know, when you, when you have a, you know, multiple six or seven figure business, that is generally speaking, obviously this depends on your cost of living and where you live and, and all of that stuff.
And, um, your, your overhead and things for your life. But usually it means you can live, uh, relatively comfortably, right there. You unburden yourself from a lot of like the day-to-day financial stress that comes from when you are broke. And I know because I have been narrowed that has also been my truth.
Um, and. There's extra right. There's overflow. You can give from the overflow. And usually like the people I work with and why I share this story of giving at the beginning of this episode is, is we are giving directly to organizations and mutual aid funds and people and candidates who can actually also unburden other people's lives.
Right. And they can transform the world in a way that we want to see it. This is what I call world changing wealth. So it's not just wealth for the sake of saying, oh, I have this look how great I am. It's the ripple effects of what we can do with that. And I realized, oh, I have all of this experience helping people in their business.
At that point already, I had experienced running businesses. I had experienced mentoring people, teaching them how to do sales and marketing in a way that would work for them. And I was like, this, this is my next path. Right. I need to marry my activism with my skills and my passions and this, and this is my truth.
And it was really to be in service of teaching more people who share similar values to me and who are fiercely fucking determined to do meaningful work, uh, with people that they feel really good about serving to make money. And, you know, to have some leverage, to positively impact the world around them.
And I had to see, you know, am I still, am I still living into that? And, and what does that look like going forward? And that really made me think about, you know, am I living into my core values? Am I showing up in the way that I want to, am I putting my energy, um, in the places that it makes the most sense for me as a single human, with a small team, uh, you know, to really live out my truth, to really honor my commitment to myself and to the people who I say that I want to serve.
And what I was realizing is in the summer, like kind of like the, the mid to late summer something was feeling off. And I know that I still, like I say it in the top of this podcast, I say, you know, Bro marketing and sketchy MLMs have given modern business a bad name. I still stand by that. I still stand by the fact that there is a way to market and sell that honors your humanity and other people's humanity.
Right? I still firmly firmly believe that. I believe that a part of another reason why I go so hard for small business is small business can transform our culture. Right? We, I, I fundamentally believe this. I fundamentally believe because small business are so different from large, uh, corporations that's and we are so much more like up close with people.
And in the day-to-day that we, we are our culture makers. We are culture shifters and. Am I creating a culture through my marketing, through my business that I, that I want. Right. And what I was seeing was, uh, you know, post the summer of 2020, obviously a lot of things were shifting. Right. And, and, uh, things that needed to be shifted, right.
That were long overdue. Think people were starting to think of things. Well, some people were starting to think of things and be aware of things that other people in society had been trying to get them to wake up to for a long time. Right. And it started to shift all of these conversations, uh, that were, are needed.
But I think what started to happen is in the world of online business, um, under the umbrella of ethical marketing, which is something, you know, I used to talk about a lot and I would, uh, You know, really sort of talk about these, these things and these, these practices that I felt like were not really serving people, but I feel like what happened was is that what I was seeing is that, um, there, there became this traction around the noise around what is right, and what is wrong, right.
People deciding this practice is wrong and then very loudly talking about it and sort of finger wagging around it and getting people all hot bothered, which then was sort of this like self fulfilling prophecy. Right. So people were then engaging with this, this like, um, fiery finger-wagging content, which then I think, I don't know, but I think it was leading the creators to be like, oh, people are really resonating with this.
So I'm going to, I'm going to double down on it. Right. I'm gonna just keep churning it out more and more. You know, day after day, week after week, this is wrong and that is wrong. And these people are terrible and those people are horrible. And, and, uh, and what was interesting was I started to notice in myself that it was giving me a lot of anxiety and I was noticing in the comments, you could like, see how anxious people were getting.
Cause they would be like, well, but like, you know, I, I do this or, or like I, is that okay if I do that, like, it was like, they were trying to get permission slips from these people to say like, is this thing that I'm doing? Is it okay? Like, do I have your blessing? Or if I'm doing it, does that mean I am a like fundamentally evil human, um, who is like replicating systems of that.
And it was funny. Cause one day I was having a conversation with my coach, Emma, and I was telling her about this, like, you know, in confidence, in the competence of our session. And she was like, you know, you can just unfollow people. Right. And I was like, yes. And thank you for the reminder. And I was like, but Emma, some of these people, like I've had conversations with them.
Right. Like they, some of them, I feel like, oh, they're my, they're my peers. And we use, you know, like, I don't know, like I felt this like obligation to still be following them for some reason. And she was like, yeah, no. And once she, you know, held that mirror up to me, I was like, of course, of course, of course, you're right.
Like, what am I, what am I doing here? So I, you know, quietly unfollowed them. And then in very like, You know, intimate conversations with some, some trusted friends and colleagues where I was sort of like really sharing my heart around, like what I was seeing and how it was making me feel and how I felt uncomfortable and how I, I felt like had I been complicit in this too.
And, and I didn't want to be that way. And I didn't, I didn't want this to be the vibe that my brand was putting off. And I don't, I didn't want people to feel more anxious when they followed me. Right. That's never been my, my, my purpose has always been to, I want to help educate people. I want to help them feel empowered around their sales and marketing.
I want them to feel better once they engage with me, not, not worse. Right. And what I had noticed was. W what, what they had told me back was that what they were not saying publicly or to other people was that they felt the same, but because none of us had, were talking about it. Um, they felt really alone.
They felt like it was just them. They felt like they were being hypersensitive. Um, or, you know, all of, all of these other like feelings and emotions. Um, but they knew that they also had to turn away from some of that because it was like making them feel paranoid. And that's what it was making me feel as well as I would start to do anything, a post, a sales page, uh, whatever, anything in my, in my content or my copy or in my way of showing up.
And I would hyper analyze everything. And I would think like, if this person saw that, are they, are they gonna, are they gonna call me out? Are they going to see a problem? Are they going to, like, in my like scariest, darkest imagination, it was like, they're going to rally the troops and they're going to come with picture pitchforks and they're going to like cancel me or something.
Um, and, and what, what was happening was I was so, um, paranoid that I wasn't showing up in my truth. I wasn't saying what I really wanted to say. I wasn't, um, really like being the leader that I want, that I wanted to be, or that I know that I can be. Right. I wasn't, um, honoring my own way of how I like to engage with people and be with people and speak to people.
Right. And I'm not saying that like, oh no, they didn't let me be like, you know, Uh, mean and hurtful or I'm like, no, I'm not that person, anyone who's been following me for any amount of time knows I'm intrinsically not that, that person. Um, and of course, of course I never want to cause real harm. Right.
Like my clients know, like they have carte blanche, especially my group program. We have community agreements and I make it clear. Like if I, if I fuck these up, you let me know. Cause I want to make it right. You know? And I feel like since, you know, summer of 2020, the one thing I've really, uh, embraced is that like, as we.
Try to transform culture for the better as we try to make it more, just equitable, inclusive, all of that, we will fuck up and it's not about not fucking up. It's the goal should not be, um, I'm going to walk on eggshells. So I don't fuck up that it is not helpful. It's I'm going to do the best I can. Uh, I'm going to try to be as mindful and compassionate as possible so that I don't cause harm, but I know that I still have like areas where it's just a total oversight.
And when I realized I have fucked up. What do I need to do to make that right? You know, not what does the other person need to do their emotional labor to educate me or, you know, anything like that? No. What is, what is my part? What is my role in the situation? Even though my intention wasn't bad, the impact was so how do I restore justice to the situation?
Right? I am, I am willing to do that. What I am not willing to do is water myself down and my message and the impact that I know that I have with people, because I am afraid of somebody is going to finger wag and say, that is bad. And that is wrong. Somebody who really doesn't know me, who doesn't know my values, who is not a close personal friend, um, who maybe doesn't understand why I did something I did.
And rather than seek to understand why they are. Going to call it out or whatever. And at the end of the day, what this all boils down to is I felt like I was spending too much of my time and energy with my eyes on other people's papers. Right. I wasn't focused on my own lane. I had lost track of what I was doing and what I needed to do.
And I was looking around to see like, well, what are they doing? What are they saying? Is, is wrong? What are, what wrong, what quote, unquote, wrong things are they doing? And how can I alert my audience to that? And what this was culminating in was I was starting to feel like I was just anti all of the things I didn't like.
I was focusing too much. Not all of my time and energy. I definitely wasn't. Too much of my time and energy being anti the things I didn't like rather than conserving my energy and doubling down on being for the things that I believe in. Right. So it's always been my tenant that if I'm saying, Hey, this is not super great.
I always follow up with something useful. Right? I I'm, if I say, Hey, you know, if, if you don't like to do this thing that a lot of marketers tell you to do here is what you can do instead. Cause I, again, I don't want to leave people worse off. I don't, I don't want to just complain into the void of the internet.
I want to actually serve people. And I, I feel like a lot of the finger wagging wasn't actually serving people. It was just making them more on edge. I had to really think as, as a single person with a limited amount of, you know, hours, I prefer to work every week with a small team, where am I going to prioritize my energy?
And for me, that was I going forward. I, the filter that I want to have is is this like in line with my integrity, is this in line with my values? Is this in line with truly serving people? If I say that that is what I'm here for, is this actually doing it? Or is this just me being a catty mean-girl bitch?
Because I know that when I do this, it's going to get people like, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the comments. Right. I, I don't, I don't actually want that. That's not the culture that I want to make. And to be very clear, this is not just me, like now just piling on these other people. It's uh, I, because I've unfollowed on me, I don't know what they're doing.
This is I'm, I'm speaking to this before for me personally, this was part of my reckoning I had to do with my self this year. And you know, it's uncomfortable, right. It's really uncomfortable to go, oh my God, this thing that I don't like was I actually doing that? Have I been doing that? Have I been, am I like a total fucking hypocrite here that, um, or, or have I under the guise of calling out harmful stuff?
So people don't cause more harm actually been causing more harm. It didn't, it didn't sit right with me and I didn't, I really didn't like it. And I also know that like, there might be people in my audience who came to me because they loved that kind of content for me. And. Now they might not resonate with me going forward anymore and they might fall off and that's, you know, it's okay.
Like this is just a natural ebb and flow of business. And I could either get weirdly in my head and be like, oh no, it's it's potential revenue that I might not get. Or I can say, how am I living into integrity? What's more important to me that lost sale or integrity. And it's, it's always going to be integrity.
Right? So I'm like saying all of this, processing this all out because you know me, I'm all about transparency. I'm all about like, if you, if you can see the real inner working. Of what this shit is like, then at least for me, it's always more comforting because when I see people that I like to learn from sharing the ugly side, the shadow side of all of this, I'm like, oh, thank God.
I'm not broken. It's not just me. I'm not fundamentally flawed in some way. And, and this is what I can, um, look out for. This is what I can prepare for this is when, when this happens, I can, I will not wallow in it. I will, I will move through the muck, but I won't get stuck there. Right. So that is why I am. I am saying all of this, you get to choose whatever you want to do in your business.
What I would say is if there is a strategy or a tactic that does not sit right with you, them figure it out. What else could you do? Right. So years ago, one of my clients, uh, she was like, she was doing this launch. I was helping her with her launch and she was like, I just really don't want to do an early bird bonus.
I know a lot of people do. I feel like I should. I just really don't want to, because what if people don't see it? Right? What if they miss out? What if they're not paying attention during that, you know, four day period or three-day period, whatever it was going to be. And they miss out and then like the price goes up, right.
It doesn't sit right with me. And I was like, cool, cool, cool. Like as her coach, I'm like, what would feel good? Right. And we talked through a few different scenarios and we landed on what would feel good for her. And that is crucial because at the end of the day, there is always going to be somebody who doesn't like what you're doing that doesn't inherently mean it's.
I'm gonna say that again, because it's important. There will always be people who don't like, or do not understand what you're doing, but if you have a fundamental, well thought out reason, purposeful, intentional reason for why you're doing it, then that is what matters. And too often, what has happened is marketers just say, you know, oh, you gotta have this tight 48 hour, you know, uh, early bird bonus to get a lot of people in right at the top.
Right. And then people just, just do it. Right. They just, without being mindful, they go, I don't know that person. To just do it. And of course, if you're not a marketer, if this is not, if you know your whole bag, right. If, if your business is not business, you're, it's, you're not inherently gonna know, you might feel in your body, this doesn't feel right, but you're, you're not going to necessarily know, well, what the fuck am I supposed to do instead?
Or I don't know, I'm paying this person a lot of money and they told me to do it, or they have all these testimonials of people who followed their, their formula. So I should probably suck it up and just do it. So what I would say instead is if the 48 hour period, if you're like, yeah, I want to do it. It feels good.
Here's, here's exactly why I'm doing it. And all of that, then that is what is, is true for you. At least this round, maybe next round, you're like, oh, I'm going to do something different. I thought I was going to love it felt good at the time, but didn't land how I wanted it to land. Cool. It's when we go on autopilot, it's when we don't take different things into consideration, that is where a lot of these problems lie.
Right. So again, if you're not sure, like this is the work I love to do with my clients is I'm not just going to give you the answer of what to do. Let's talk out a few scenarios. You tell me what feels you tell me what feels right, right. And know that there will always be people forever. And always as your business continues to grow, who continue to have issue with what you do.
And most of the time, you're never going to know about it. They're either going to complain in their own head or they're going to complain to their besties. And is that uncomfortable? Yes, it sucks. I don't like thinking about that, but it's just how it is. Right. It's just how it is. And I'm not saying that we can't eventually have a change of heart on a practice and shift it and say, I don't like that practice.
I'm not going to do it anymore. You'll probably have those moments too. Right. But I think that it's, it's, uh, I don't want to ever be the, the online marketing police of what is ethical and what is not, I don't want to be the arbiter. I don't want to be the gatekeeper. I want nuance. I want conversation. I want, uh, thoughts.
I want consideration. I want to actually work with people to have discernment for themselves around what is best for them and for their business and for their clients and all of that, because. A, if I am trying to be the internet police of what is ethical in sales and marketing that is taking away my time from the impact I want to make.
And it's also not really, it's not serving my clients and I, and I fear it's only adding to the noise and the paranoia and, and all of that. And it just it's, it's not how we want to be. If other people want to be it that's on them. I don't want to be it. So I'm not going to be it it's now. So I've on the backend.
What does that mean? I've been, I mean, I've been changing my messaging a little bit anyways because my brand and has evolved along with me and I have a new brand coming out soon, a new website coming out soon, but in that. I'm erasing where it said like ethical entrepreneurs, because you know what, that's me putting too great of a burden on you because we will all fuck up.
We will all do things that other people deem as unethical. Uh, w you know, who gets to say what is ethical anyways? Right? Um, again, just because something, somebody doesn't like something doesn't mean it's not ethical. Uh, and I just don't want it. Some I'm shifting it, shifting it more to, you know, integrity driven.
That's really important to me. Are you an integrity? Being an integrity means that when you fuck up, or when you have a change of heart, you have the courage to say, oh my God, I fucked up. I had a change of heart. I'm going to do something different. Right. We can hold ourselves to a high standard and hold ourselves accountable for actions.
That is what I want to be for. Not for finger-wagging and making. Feel even more shitty every time that they have to show up and try to sell the thing that they're trying to sell. This leads me to another big, big, big revelation. So I'm gonna go back a little ways. And when my, when I was pregnant with my son, 18 ish years go, now she's 17.
So 8, 17, 18 years ago, uh, we were on food assistance. So my husband was active duty Navy. We were on food assistance, uh, very broke. This is when I started my first business ever. I used to sell, uh, designer jeans and handbags online. I would buy and wholesale lots. And then I would resell them back in like, you know, ye olden days of internet business.
And we were very. Broke. I was also, um, in grad school, I was working a full-time job and I had my business and it was, was bonkers and fast forward to like 2015. And I realize that, uh, so at this point I'm already, I'm working for an organic, I had been working for an organic farm, 2015. I had a separate business.
I had been working for an organic farm. I had had my own organic farm. Um, so food, local food, food systems, all of that very important for me. I'm such a geek about it. I love it. I had gone to organic farming conferences, regenerative farming conferences. I was all about that life. I still am all about that life.
I just don't farm anymore. So 2015 I realized that, uh, military hunger is a bigger problem than. I thought I was a fluke. I felt very alone. I felt very ashamed. I find out that's not the case. I share my story on Facebook one day and long story short, I won't get into all of it, but I get contacted by a friend who works for an organization called the zone.
They are working on this issue. Will I share my story? Yes. Fast forward. I'm testifying before Congress, January of 2016, not all of it. Just members of the house agriculture subcommittee. So I have five minutes to share my story of military hunger. So this now I've gone from farming, uh, activist, like organic regenerative farming activism to like military food justice.
And, and I was also always into like, uh, food justice activism. Um, and food access and all of that, but now there's this new layer adding the layer of military hunger, right? So, so this is, this is really like this, this is my whole, uh, but like kind of behind the scenes jam, I'm currently on our, our counties, um, food policy council, and it's, it's something I'm incredibly, incredibly passionate about.
Uh, so I had already been starting to think a bit this year about what we deem as like accessibility, usually talking about pricing. I actually have a previous podcast, uh, episode all about this. And what's interesting though, is I put that episode out, talk to briefly about it, and then I kind of left it because I was really afraid about talking about this more because I was afraid that it was going to be perceived as, see, you say you want to help people, but your prices, don't say you want to help people.
Your price is say that you are greedy and you're exclusive and you don't really, you don't actually really care. That's truly what I was afraid of. Um, so I would, you know, I've been raising my rates over time as is normal. The more experience you have with something and, um, the more refined you get, you're like, oh yeah, it would feel better to charge for this.
Right. That it makes sense. The value I deliver. Right. So even though there are, I have other episodes too, I have my interview with tonight where we talk about value based pricing. There was always a way to be speaking to the right people that it makes sense for, with your offers at any price. Right? So if you have a $25,000 VIP day, obviously that is not for everyone right there, your, your messaging, your marketing, everything around that, your positioning is going to be speaking to people who will not be destitute.
If they have to fork over $25,000. Right. But still, you know, for, for people like me, for people like my clients who want to, to change the world with our work, it is very easy to put on this mantle of like savior, right. I have to save everyone with my gifts. I have to be super woman. I have to be a superhero and I have to use my gifts.
Uh, You know, 24, 7, 365 in every possible way I can to save other people because people need this. And I'm not saying that people don't need what we have. What I am saying is that in our quest to do good work, to help people with our gifts, we have created this commodity market that is based on extraction of ourself, and this is not good.
And actually in my second cohort of rebellious success, we had a really big extended, juicy conversation around this. And I was really glad we had it, but again, it was in private. It was in a private client container was not me talking a ton about it publicly, but the thing was, was. If we think about it like scales, right?
And we're on one side and the information and the, the service we're at, you know, whatever it is we're doing with our clients is on that is on the other side. Right? So when we say, I want to keep my pricing accessible, to help the most people, I realized that that is altruistic. And there's also other ways that we can be accessible, but let me put a pin in that salsa.
In that episode, too, when that comes down to, I am going to take on direct client work at too low, a price. We are tipping the scales out of our favor and into our own extract. We are saying the world is fucked up. Capitalism is fucked up. Things are inequitable. And therefore how I will make it right is by turning the swords of capitalism on myself and extracting my own labor for not enough compensation and as a way to be a helper.
Right. So what ends up happening here? Resentment burnout, uh, you know, all sorts of other Leo intense, um, frustration, uh, uh, a weird imbalance. We aren't showing up fully perhaps to the. Because we're not feeling fairly compensated for it. So we might procrastinate on it. Or we might like grumble, you know, before hopping on a call or things like that.
Right. So does it make you a bad person, B those emotions, those feelings don't mean you're a bad person. They don't mean that you are, uh, evil. They don't mean that you are worthless or that you will have no future success or anything. They are your body's indicators telling you that you are extracting too much of yourself for unfair compensation, right?
So the scales have tipped out of your favor. It is important that we bring this back into balance so that we can have regenerativity in our business. And what that means is. W a regenerative system is one that actually puts more resources back into itself as it goes to keep it flourishing versus always extracting resources from it.
So how does this go back to farming and food justice and all of that? So even though all of these thoughts had been percolating under the surface, um, a little over a month ago, I was watching David Chang's new, uh, series called the next thing you eat. It's very, very, very good. And a lot of it has to do with the future of meat, just because we around the world globally, especially beef, you know, cheap hamburgers are such a thing, right.
And in the first episode, he is talking about the unseen cost of the cheap hamburgers and. This is something that I'm intimately aware of because of all my nerdery around food and farming. Right. But there was something like a bolt of fucking lightning. It hit me when I was watching. We're finally all of those disparate thoughts and feelings and things that I'd been private conversations.
I've been having a people it's like it all melded together. And I was like, this, this is it right here. This is why it doesn't sit right with me. This is why it feels so shitty when we do this to ourselves. This is why we cannot dismantle the patriarchy. Um, you know, white Christian SIS had abelist patriarchy by extracting from ourselves.
Because in that process, we have created a paradigm where we have become $1 hamburger. And we are treating ourselves as if we need to be a $1 hamburger so that we can be as accessible to as many people, as many people who want to eat as possible in, in this analogy, right? There's many people who, who want to eat or need to eat as possible.
We have become the $1 hamburger. And if you do not know the cost of the $1 hamburger, let me tell you, and I'm not going to go into graphic detail, but the whole system of the $1 hamburger is horrific. The systems that make that possible are horrific. And what usually gets shown is very sad. Videos of feedlot cattle.
Now it's horrible. It's awful. It shouldn't exist. And then, you know, in more recent years because of climate crisis, a lot more gets said about. The negative climate impact of those huge feedlots, right? Uh, the, you know, methane gases and, and all of that stuff, right? That are it's huge, uh, scale beef farming is horrible for the planet in many, many, many ways, right?
Not regenerative the farming talking about the $1 beef farming, what is usually left out of the mainstream conversation is the human cost to the workers and the systems. And not just be right. This is everything. This is all commodity products, corn, soy, wheat, all of these things. There are humans, usually brown skin humans, usually undocumented humans in America.
I will say at least who have these low paying very dangerous inhumane jobs. Where they have no rights to advocate for themselves or their working conditions or their pay or their time off or anything. This is not by accident that we don't see this right. That we don't see this publicly, that human cost is horrific, horrific.
It should not be right. It should not be. And on the other hand, there are some families with which, because of inequity, they have to survive on $1 hamburgers as well. Right. They have to feed their kids from the value meal. This is all fucked up both ways, right? It's all fucked up both ways. I don't love it.
I know you don't love it. Uh, what I'm, I'm not trying to, um, villainize the people. Who get the $1 hamburgers? Cause I know for some people it is the only way sort of like fast fashion versus slow fashion. I love slow fashion, happy to support it. I have the money to now not everyone can, right. It's fucked.
The system is fucking all of us. The problem is when we fuck ourselves to try to write the system, we are not fixing the system right. When we extract our own humanity, our own energy, our own time, our own resources in the name of, I want to be accessible and help a lot of people. It is. It's not, it's inherently not, it's not a regenerative system because what will end up happening is you will deplete yourself to the point where you help.
Nobody asked me how I. That's where I was at the end of 2016. I was so burnt out. I, I was just done. I was of no use to anyone and you know what, for like a good six months, I didn't even fully, wasn't fully honest with myself with how burnt out I was. And I just kept trying and trying and trying, when, what I really needed was a break.
What I really needed was to honor myself and my energy and what I needed to be compensated for what I was doing. And it was at that point that I actually started the business that I have now. So I know that we all mean, well, when we say this. This is not me saying, go out there and triple your prices and fuck everyone and too bad.
So sad. I'm only here to serve, you know, to help the rich get richer. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is is that when we show up with high value content that is free to the end-user, it's never free for us. This podcast is free to enjoy it. It's not free to put out. My content is not it's, it's free to the end user.
It takes my time. It takes my energy. It takes my money and my team. I'm happy to do it. I am more than happy to do it. I love doing it because it is high value because somebody who legitimately cannot afford to work with me can listen to all of my content, can consume all of my content and can, and I fundamentally believe they can have success.
Because of my commitment to putting out high value content that is free to the end user. This does not mean that I need to. Underprice my direct coaching time. The value that I bring to that time, the years of experience I bring to that time, because what will end up happening is I will extract everything I have for myself.
If I keep that up and I don't want that, I want to be regenerative, right? This doesn't mean I never quickly coach somebody for 10 minutes in a Voxer or DM, no compensation asked, but that's me choosing it in moments when I have the energy to give from the overflow, right. That is not in my regular packages and offers.
And I realized that in me saying all this, I also might lose some listeners. I might lose some followers. I might turn off people. But what I'm telling you is I have seen this again and again, in my clients, I have felt it again and again, in myself, I asked a client in that session and a rebellious success.
She had an event coming up that night. She'd been doing them for free or choose what you want to pay since beginning of pandemic, very kindhearted of her. Very wonderful. It, it was great. I D I would never say that she should not have done it. She was tired. She had paid work that she needed to do, and she had to give time that night that she maybe wasn't going to get compensated at all for if everyone showed up and nobody.
Or if maybe she only got, you know, $5 to be there for the whole hour or two that it was. And I said, let me just pick an arbitrary number. If you knew that you could show up and somebody was going to give you $250, not even those, those people right there, somebody was going to give you $250, how would you feel?
And she was like, oh my God. So excited. So excited. And I was like, yeah, because you are, you're being fairly compensated for your time for your value money being put in as regenerative. So no, if you truly, if, if your business model is truly serving people who cannot afford to work with you at all, then you know, who do you need to go to?
What, what funding do you need? What investors do you need? Right. Do you need angel investors? Do you need something else? It's your compensation. If it's not coming directly from the people that you're working with, it needs to come from somewhere. Right. And here's again, we're had to get very honest with myself, right?
Am I trying to be a savior to the masses? Or can I be brilliant for the people who are already poised to get the most out of working with me? And I will not, uh, wrongly extract from them in order to do it, I will not be asking them. You choose to invest in me or you can afford your bills. No, no, no, no, no.
I don't. I'm not speaking to, to those people. Right? I'm speaking to people who are going to have the means to invest in me and are poised to get the greatest return on their investment. And thus, I will have a secondary impact of, they will be earning more money. They will be able to help more people, right?
So th it's this ripple effect, right? They, they will show up differently in their business. They will give higher quality of service, higher level of service. They are less likely to burn out because I'm not asking them to extract themselves. And then I can actually, instead of trying to be that superhero and save everyone, if I have more abundance to give, just like I said, at the top, making those donations, right.
I don't need to try to reinvent the wheel. I can go to organizations that are already teaching people. How to run their businesses and I can just give to those organizations, right? They already have the systems, the structures, the resources, everything in place to serve small business owners who truly cannot afford, um, that, you know, coaching and guidance and things like that.
And they can be served there, right? So I am actually helping to keep another organization or system. I am actually helping them live more into their truth and their purpose and their reason for being, and I'm not splitting my focus. Right. And I had to get really honest with myself because there was a point where I, after my, my launch, my relaunch of rebellious success, there was a point and I had to get really honest.
And I had to say, what is the future of this program? Do I lower the price and extract from the program? Do I water it down to make it cost less of an investment? And then potentially it doesn't live up to the transformation that I want it to have that I'm promising, or do I raise the price to be in line with the value and do I give my heart and fucking soul to that group and to that program and to make it as great as it could possibly be and serve people in the most incredible way so that they can turn around and they can make world changing wealth and I can make role changing wealth.
And then in turn, we can all rather than us having to spread ourselves thin and extract from ourselves to, you know, be the direct people that have to do all of these good works, right. Can we just go to the places that are already doing the good work and say, Hey, here's 10 grand do with it, what you need.
Right. And I'm not saying there's a right or wrong here. Right. If your purpose is having a nonprofit or something else, that is great. I champion that. I'm all for it. I'm not saying that my way is the right way. I am saying my way is the right way for me. I only have so much time and energy to give, where can I do the most good, right?
Where can I do the most good? I can do the most good serving certain people in a certain way with my magic to help them make more money in turn, I make more money. And then we get to choose where we allocate that money. And also. For the people following me, who, who truly cannot invest in me right now, or maybe ever, I can also honor my commitment to that by high quality content that is free for the end user to consume.
That is how I want to be in right relation with myself and with my people. I refuse to fight in one area of my life against systems of extraction, right? I can't say I can't look at the food system and go, it's horrible. You are harming people at both ends of the spectrum. This is terrible. This is inequitable.
We need to fix this. We need to make the food system more humane for all people. And then turn around and do the exact same thing to myself and advocate for my clients to do the same thing to themselves. The systems we swim in are fucked. I know that we have big hearts. I know that we want to make a difference.
Driving ourselves to burnout is not the way it's not the way I'm getting all emotional. As I do, whenever I talk about food, um, food system. It sucks. It sucks to live like in the, in this world. Right? A lot of times, like as of late, especially it's like, wow, everything late stage capitalism and everything is just horrendous all the time.
And I just want to make it better. Oh God, my dog. Of course. He's peanut. No, we're not loafing. Hey, Hey,
I find it hilarious that I just paused the recording and restarted it, but I find it hilarious that my dog chose that moment to bark. It was good though. It shook, it shipped me out of it. So it wasn't just a blubbering mess here. But again, I know this is, you know, this is long, but this is important, right?
It's I N I understand the tendency. To want to put all of the fixing onto our shoulders. Right. I get it. I get that. When, when you have more than somebody else, I get the human, the kind of human tendency to be like, well, I have to do something. Right. And it has to, it has to come from me. It has to come from my free labor and my free time and, and, and depleting myself.
Right. I get it. Right. I feel like this is, this is very normal. This is what I do all it's like, right. This is, this is my default. Um, but this, this leads, this will lead to ruin, right? All this is doing it's, it's kind of like, here's what I equate it to. It's kind of like people being like, I'm not going to use plastic bags or plastic straws because they have to help the environment.
And there's nothing wrong. I'm not saying. That, that shouldn't be the goal. Right. I'm trying to like say that that's terrible. Um, but you know, when there's, when people are all this outcry over plastic straws and sea turtles, and it's, it's humans, it's individuals like bending over backwards to stop climate change, right.
Um, and to like change out their light bulbs and do all these things. Again, I'm not vilifying doing any of those things, but like, we are putting this responsibility, this huge responsibility of climate crisis on ourselves as individuals in all these myriad of ways, while corporations who are causing most of the harm.
Are still causing most of the harm, right? We like, yes, we can do little things to make our world a world, a better place. I'm all for that writing a fucking book on it. Right. I firmly firmly believe that like w the more of us that can do small things on a day to day to make the world better. Like, that's amazing.
However, also, right. Like as individuals, like, we cannot write all of the wrongs of corporate capitalism. Like, uh, we can't put that burden on our small business to the point where it just absolutely shuts us down. Because that is of no use to anyone that is not regenerative it's it's extractive. I will not be a dollar hamburger.
I do not want you to be a dollar hamburger. I'm never going to tell any of my clients to be a dollar hamburger. We have to make sure we are caring for ourselves first. And I don't mean that in like a book, you got mine kind of energy. I mean that in a, we need to make sure that we are whole and we are sound and that we are being regenerative in our business.
This, this is a huge conversation. It's one I will continue to have. This is just the tip of the iceberg. So there's all of that. The interlude of my dog barking. Uh, I'm, I'm happy to keep chatting about all of these things have already talked about. But I want to get some predictions and some thank yous. I don't usually do predictions, but I'm making an exception this year for many, many reasons, from what I have seen in the online landscape and in the world, my prediction is that going forward, the people, I will save the people who I serve.
Right? So small business owners, service providers, consultants, and coaches operating online businesses, people in those, in those categories. Uh, and, and to some degree, you know, like, um, you know, some product sellers and stuff too. But, uh, I, I primarily at this point, I'm mostly just work with, with service providers, but this, this does hold true for product sellers to prioritizing relationships.
And the long game of true relationship building and creating community around shared values will win out. Now, I don't mean that the major players are going to suddenly go bankrupt or anything like that because to a degree, you know, there are things like, um, large scale, you know, uh, paid advertising and stuff.
It's still there. It's still going to work. It's shifted in 2021, but it's still going to work. But the people who I work with my clients, they don't need thousands of clients a year to hit their goals. They don't need it, which means they don't need thousands of clients. They don't need to be speaking to hundreds of thousands of people.
So when you need fewer people, you need to be like you, you can get away with talking to fewer people and having higher caliber relationships with those people. Right. And then leaning on those relationships for other, you know, cool marketing opportunities, collaborations, referrals, networking, all sorts of good stuff.
Right? So my thought to you and which is funny, and this is what I've always done in this sort of always taught my clients, but I, this is what I predict. The people who will have profitable 20, 20 twos and calm 2020 twos to, you know, as much as we can control that and this weird. And regenerative 2020 twos will be people who structure their offers in a way that is regenerative structure, their business in a way that is regenerative, speak to the people who make most sense for those regenerative offers and then long game intentional, true relationship building and values aligned community.
That is what I think where it's at. It's less but better, less but better is, is my, my predictions going into the. So, if you're curious about any of that, if you're like, Ooh, that sounds good. And like, yes, let's help me make a plan around that. Erica, reach out. Um, any, any of this, any of this, you can always reach out.
You can tag me as you're listening on Instagram, Eric catamarans consulting tag me, let me know your biggest ahas for takeaways sliding and by my DMS. See how maybe we can work together in 2022. Uh, and how I can help you with everything I've already talked about today so that you can get more world changing wealth.
Uh, yeah. So that's, that's where we're at. And I want to end this with some thank yous because the reality is I can not have a regenerative business without a lot of support. Oh, and that's the other thing. That's the other thing you have a regenerative business. When you can give through, give from the overflow, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to.
Support other people in humane ways as well. Right? If you can pay people really well, you can be really generous. Um, you can be generous to yourself with the support. It's really lovely. It feels really good. I could not do all of this alone. None of us, none of us can, none of us get where we want to be solely on our own.
So I want to take a moment to thank some people who were vital to my success this year. So first up Patty Meyer and the team at biz magic, so grateful that I was supported by her and her team all year. And I'm really excited for what is in store for me and my team going into next year. Sickia Houghton Kia, young Marianna Penya.
Amber Williams, Chelsea Sanders Solvay patch, AKA PECI. Jackie Rodriguez, Megan Hamilton, Katie Bradshaw, Emma magenta, Danny peace, pre Fanny priest, K Wanda lamb, Jessica Rodriguez, Sabrina Torres, hunter Niland welling, Meghan Dowd, Megan Lamb, Tasha booth, Veronica yawns, Claire panacea, Randy Buckley, Meryl Krigsman and the whole Aww team, Rachel Allen and Kendra Hennessy.
And there are probably some people I'm forgetting and I will feel terrible about it later. Um, but I really wanted to make sure to acknowledge all of those people and lastly, but certainly not leastly. Thank you to everyone who paid me anything. Even if it was a super low cost workshop, know that you made a difference in my life, you made a difference in the lives of all the people I invested in this year.
You helped me give generously to people and causes that I care about. And you mean the world to me. And thank you to my listeners, whether you are brand new here, or you've been here from the beginning, we've binged every episode. I appreciate you. Um, I got my Spotify wrapped. I keep meaning to post about it on Instagram.
It was really cool. It was really cool to see just from Spotify, um, the impact and where people are listening in the world and all of that. And this podcast is small, but mighty this podcast is proof that you do not have to have big numbers to make a really big impact. So if I could ask for one quick favor, yes.
I'm asking for your time, but not your money. I don't want to extract from you. So do this only if you feel called and only if you have the spoons for it, but if you could share this podcast with another entrepreneur or entrepreneurs that you know, who would find it refreshing, who would be really well served by it, who would see it as valuable.
It would mean the world to me. So I hope you love this. We're taking some time off. Me and the team are taking some time off. I hope you get to take some time off too, and I'm so excited to help you make more magic by leveraging my magic in 2022 and as always happy selling.
