Truth: Success can NOT be packaged, sold, and bought for a price
Hey friend,
Broken trust and doubt. Relief and anticipation. Empathy and shame. Over and over again, these were the resounding themes of the 200+ messages we received in response to last week’s email, announcing our NEW “Unhidden” email series.
Because so many of you have felt/seen/experienced changes in the online marketing world. And so many of you have felt/seen/experienced a deep sense of weariness in both yourselves and your communities. Whether it was weariness over all the noise, or all the promises, or all the ways in which the online marketing world has “guaranteed” that their “proven step-by-step system” will make it easy for you to achieve the same level of success that they have …
You’re DONE.
(Not done with entrepreneurship, mind you, but done with all the online marketing rhetoric and its claims that success can be packaged, sold, and bought for a price).
And that’s exactly why I’m here, writing this NEW email series.
Because no matter what the online marketing world says or does, you are never ONE course, coach, funnel, client, software, launch, partnership, Facebook ad, or mastermind away from success.
And even as I write that, I know how much it’ll make you cringe.
Because in the back of your mind, you’re already challenging that statement, already questioning it, already telling yourself that there must be some “secret” you and I don’t know. But THAT is exactly what the online marketing industry wants you to believe.
Think about it.
The entire online marketing world has spent YEARS positioning themselves as your “savior.”
Not out of some malicious intent (because there are lots of GOOD people in the online marketing industry who sell this way). But because there are so many ways in which we can unintentionally contribute to a broken system (without even realizing it).
Which means that no matter how much hype/rhetoric/hyperbole you’ve managed to avoid, if you spend any amount of time on social media, you’re still being inundated and conditioned to trust *them* more than you trust *yourself.*
And over time, this has chipped away at your self-reliance, self-confidence, and self-trust.
I mean, just answer me this: On a scale of 1-10 how much do you believe in *your current ability* to grow your business to 6 or 7 figures, without outside guidance, and within the next year or two?
ANY hesitation you feel (and influx of doubts or excuses) is your proof. And that, right there, is exactly HOW the online marketing industry profits off of you.
Because if you don’t believe you can figure out entrepreneurship on your own OR if you’re searching for ways to bypass every mistake, hardship, obstacle, and failure … then you’ll always “need” the online marketing industry in order to succeed.
There’s a super common phrase among 7 and 8-figure business owners called “the lifetime value of a customer.” Essentially, what this means is that their goal is to make money off of you beyond your initial purchase. So if you buy their online course (for $1,500), but you still “need” them after you finish … they can upsell you to their mastermind (for $30,000) and increase your lifetime value as a customer to $31,500.
Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with selling to a customer more than once or creating a valuable upsell, downsell, or cross sell.
The problem is the deeply perpetuated belief that every level and layer of entrepreneurship has more “secrets” you need to purchase.
But the only way to overcome that belief in your own entrepreneurial narrative is to:
- Practice internal check-ins before seeking external affirmations. Meaning, before you look to someone else’s business for guidance, check in with yourself first. What do you want to write, create, do, change, or uplevel next?
- Promote yourself to your true role as CEO. Your business needs you to be its strategist, more than anything else. Because even if you hire someone to consult on a project, or write your sales funnel, or overhaul your visual identity, all of these supports are temporary. You are the ONLY constant in your business and thus, the only one who can exponentially grow it and lead it forward.
- Start breaking the “rules”. The biggest names in your industry got to where they are because they kept trying new/different things they hadn’t seen/done before. And if you’re always mimicking their success, you’ll forever be a part of the trickle-down effect vs. benefiting from your own origination.
- Invest in skillsets vs. step-by-step plans. There’s a big difference between improving a specific skill (i.e. learning HOW to write better, sell better, or save better) and trying to follow in someone else’s “proven” footsteps (which often doesn’t account for varying differences in terms of education, privilege, trauma, family of origin, disabilities, or even skin tone, gender, sexual orientation, or body shape).
- Stop waiting for someone else to step in and save your business. No one on earth can do that FOR you—not a course you take, coach you invest in, or team member you hire. None of them can save your business because it’s not their vision, or their future, or their responsibility. Which means, as crazy as it sounds right now, YOU are the one you’ve been waiting for.
All this to say: Yes, the online marketing world has changed. And yes, there are people at the “top” of your industry that know stuff you don’t know yet.
But (and this is a really big but): You know stuff they don’t know yet, too.
And the more we unpack what you DO know (about yourself, your people, your metrics, your voice, your rhythm, and your goals), the more you’ll grow in a way that is RIGHT and TRUE for you and your business.
But in the meantime, I’d love to know: On a scale of 1-10 how much do you believe in *your current ability* to grow your business to 6 or 7 figures, without outside guidance, and within the next year or two?
(Also, let me know if your number changed over the course of reading this email!)
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and read your numbers.
It’ll help me SO much as I write the next email in this series. Especially since, when it comes to passive income vs. real revenue, Facebook ads vs. organic, automation vs. personalization, and #girlbosses vs. #bromarketers … there’s SO much yet to come.
All our love for you,
Elise + Scott