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You can run a great business quietly for years and nobody bothers you. But the moment you decide to speak up, teach, help or share your experience publicly, the rules change. Not because you're wrong, not because your intentions are bad, but because the visibility has a cost. And today we're going to talk about that cost and how to prepare for it and why it shouldn't stop you if your purpose is clear.

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Today's episode is brought to you by Yardbook, the All in one CRM for your lawn care business. And as an exclusive partner of this podcast, you can get started today and begin simplifying your business and maximizing your profits. Sign up now@yardbook.com the link is in. The show notes Time now for Profits with Paycheck, an essential podcast for you in the green industry who are looking to unlock the full potential of your business. Hosted by John Pajac, your certified financial coach, the show features in depth discussions with successful entrepreneurs, thought leaders and industry experts. Providing practical advice and proven strategies on financial planning, operations, marketing and sales, Profits with Paycheck has valuable insights and action steps that you can implement today for creating long term success. Now here's John Pajak.

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Welcome to Profits with Paycheck, the podcast where we talk about business strategies and financial insights for the green industry. I am your host John Pajak and today we're going to be talking I want to talk to the business owner who is running a real operation and is also thinking about sharing their journey online. Or maybe you already have. And this is not going to be an episode about social media hacks. It's not going to be about how to grow your followers. But what I would like to discuss, this is going to be a discussion about what happens when you become visible and why thick skin is not optional if you choose that path. Because running a business and being visible online are not the same thing and we need to separate them. Because running a business, I mean literally these are like two complete different jobs. When you're running your business, it rewards competency, consistency, the systems and how you execute it. And when you are chasing that visibility online, that rewards communication and emotional discipline, restraint and perspective. And a lot of people confuse the two. And you know, they'll see someone online talking confidently and assume it's easy and they'll they see the reach and the engagement and they think that's the goal and they see results without seeing the pressure that comes with being seen. And the truth is visibility magnifies everything. I mean it's amazing because it really shows off your wins but on the flip side of that coin, your mistakes are right out there for everyone. Your opinions that you have can come under scrutiny, and even your tone. You know, there's times, you know, I'll just say this for myself. There's a lot of times people think that I come off uppity when I'm just trying to help them. And I'm not trying. I'm not better than anybody else. I just have experience, and I know how a lot of things operate, and I'm not trying to be better than anybody. I'm just trying to guide them. But they take it the wrong way. But the thing is, most importantly, you know, when we're talking about this, this visibility, you know, you're under a magnifying glass at this point. It is going to really project. It's going to, you know, magnify how people project their own frustrations onto you. And, you know, this happens a lot when you speak publicly. Your words no longer belong only to you. They get interpreted through other people's experiences, their assumptions and emotions. I mean, you think about this like if somebody read text or they read a post online, Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, whatever it might be, if it's just a static post, there's no, like, emotion behind it. You don't know if somebody's saying, hey, that's a brilliant idea, or that's a brilliant idea. You know, like, they don't know if it's the actual encouragement or if it's sarcasm, you know, because what. How people interpret that is actually the state of mind that they're in. There's this great key and Peele skit where, you know, they're texting each other and I'm talking about, hey, let's meet up at night. And, you know, keys all, you know, chill and then, you know, or actually keys all worked up, and then Peele is like, chill and like, yeah, I want to come out right now, you know, and anyway, they both missed. Both misinterpreting what each other is saying. One guy's furious, the other guy's just chill and like, yeah, man, whatever you want. And there's a lack of communication there. But, you know, when we're. We're looking at it that way, you know, you have to understand when you put yourself out in public, people can interpret all the things that you do, whether it's verbally, it's written in a post, it's a video, whatever it is. They're going to base a lot of that, and they're going to look in the mirror and say, well, I'm going through some tough times. So I guess this guy's going through some tough times, too. Or this guy says he's better than me. Or, oh, man, I'm better than this guy. What is he doing? Why is he out there? Okay. You know, some people are listening to learn, and some people are listening to validate what they already believe. And some people are just looking for something to argue about. And that's not unique to this industry. It's just human nature. But the mistake many business owners make is thinking that every response deserves a reply, because it doesn't. Winning an argument online rarely moves your business forward. And arguing about trivial things is one of the most expensive ways to spend your time and your mental energy. You don't need to win every conversation when your time is better spent winning in business. Back when I was getting my lawn care business off the ground, I was juggling RO invoices and customer notes with paper and prayers. It was chaos. Until I found Yardbook. Yardbook gave me the structure. It helped me track chemicals, route efficiently, invoice faster, and most importantly, it helped me grow a profitable business. If you're tired of duct taping your systems Together, go to yardbook.com and sign up for free. And if you're ready to go premium, use promo code PAYJACK to get your first 30 days on me. So here's the thing. You know, I let a lot of things go. And let me be clear about something. Letting things go is not weakness. It's discipline. Because at some point, I made a decision about what deserves my energy and what doesn't. And running a business requires clarity. Helping others requires patience, and staying sane requires boundaries. And that's the thing, is that, you know, I don't engage with everything I see, and I don't argue about every detail, and I don't take every comment personally. It's not because I don't care, but because I care about the right things. Time is finite, attention is expensive, and the emotional drag can compound if you let it. So a lot of times, silence is often the most professional response. And I'm not talking about inside your business itself. You know, you're out there dealing with your clients. But I'm just saying, if you're out there and you're looking at, you know, I want to start a YouTube channel, I want to start a podcast, I want to start doing these things, I'm not being negative about it, but I'm just saying it's like you're going to open yourself up to a lot of scrutiny. So you have to be ready for that. And this is why this part matters. This episode is not meant to discourage anyone from expressing themselves. You know, if you feel called to teach, share, or help, just do it. But understand this revisibility doesn't, you know, create pressure. It's going to reveal where you're. You are not ready yet. You know, it's like if you're, if. Let's just say you're sharing, you're excited about something and you share it and you think that's great. There's going to be people that are in your corner saying, yeah, dude, that's awesome. You know, they're going to be your cheer, cheerleader, but at the same time, you're going to have people that will look for any little thing. Oh, you know, you didn't have your, your earplugs in, or you didn't have your, your glasses on or you had your disc, you know, like, oh, I don't run trimmer guards on my trimmers. Or I always keep the, you know, you shouldn't keep the flap open on your mower deck or something. You know, they're going to nitpick you to death about everything. It's. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. Okay, but be ready for that. They're, you know, you can't, you know, do something again. If you're, you're called to share things. Don't worry about the comments, okay? I mean, if you're doing something really wrong, then, yeah, pay attention to it and live and learn. But at the same time, you know, if you're doing the best you can and, you know, just be, be prepared for some keyboard warrior to try to shred you down. And here's the thing, like, if you're, you're sharing this with people, if your business foundation is shaky at all, that visibility is going to expose it. If your confidence is borrowed, you know, you had to work yourself up eventually. That visibility is going to test it because it's like maybe you were able to do a couple videos or something, but in the long run, you know, people keep tearing you down or whatever. It's going to, it's going to test that the confidence. And if your purpose isn't clear, the visibility is going to confuse you. So if you, if you're doing something and you don't really have a end goal with it, then you could quickly get distracted and go down different paths. I mean, obviously that's Life in general. But at the same time, if you have a purpose, stick with that purpose. Because some people see others online and think they could do the same thing and get the same results. What they don't see is the years of experience, the mistakes, the systems that they put in place, and the restraint behind the scenes. And, you know, I'm here to tell you, you absolutely can build a voice. Just make sure that you're prepared for what comes with it. I've had a few, not, not just clients, but I've had, you know, quite a few dms come in and emails and stuff, and they're, they're talking about, you know, I really want to do a podcast or I really want to do, you know, YouTube videos and stuff. It's like, that's great, go for it. But what do you want to do it on? Are you going to be copying everybody else's stuff? Because if you do, I mean, hey, that's cool, but maybe try providing something slightly different. But anyway, besides that part, if you're considering on becoming more visible, here are a few things to think about. First, decide your why before you post. Because attention without purpose, it really just becomes noise. If you're doing the same thing everybody else is doing, you're just going to get lost in the field, essentially, and nothing's really going to pop off for you. Second, choose which conversations you will engage in and which ones you won't. Now, this is very important, okay, because you are allowed to protect your piece. And, you know, I have, there's a Yard Book user group that is very good. Like, we, we have a lot of members in that group and we focus on helping people learn how to use Yardbook to solve the problems that they have with their lawn care business. But, you know, occasionally things start to slide off the rails a bit and it's like, you know what? I have to, you know, figure out which arguments and things that I'm going to engage in. Whether somebody's putting out false information or they are ignorant and they don't know how to. They don't know that some features exist in this system. But, you know, again, it's like, choose your battles, right? You don't need to engage in everything because otherwise you're gonna feel stressed out, you're gonna feel worn out, and your energy is not gonna go in the right place. And third, understand that helping people does not require convincing everyone the right people are out there listening. And finally, remember, this criticism often says more about the critic than the work itself. So, you know, just for Example, you know, there's times when I'll post something, I'll do a video run through for, you know, like either for Yardbook or for another CRM. Not a CRM, but another money management program. And, you know, people will come out of the woodwork and they don't know what they're talking about and they just like, oh, you could do this with, you know, Excel. It's like, yeah, you could. It's going to be tricky, you know, and a lot of times I just don't even engage in those conversations because I could just smell it. It's just like, this is going to go nowhere. And, you know, bless that person's heart. But they're, you know, all they're doing is trying to waste time. They're not focused on the right things. So anyway, here's a takeaway I want you to have. If you want to help people, just help them. If you want to be visible and you want to be a social media influencer, things like that, understand there's a cost to it. I don't think any, like myself, I never wanted to be a social media influencer. I just want to help people. But the thing is, you know, if you, if you're out there and you choose both, make sure that you got thick skin, make sure your business and the purpose that you, that you have for doing these things are strong enough to carry it. So even if you're not going to be active in the social media stuff, if you're not worried about YouTube and podcasting and all these other things, here's another. This works just as well in business as it does for the, for that topic as well. But if you audit where your energy is going, you could find out where, like the, the con, like conversations that pop up in everyday life, you could find out what those conversations are that are draining you and you could cut them out. And basically any kind of work that, that moves your business forward, double down on it. Anything that helps you move forward, double down on it. Don't get distracted, you know, with all these other things. There's a million things out there. There's billions of things out there that could distract us. And I found, you know, and just take this from me, I've, I've got multiple businesses. I have a lot of different things going on at the same time. My wife was even selling, telling me that, you know, basically you have too many pots on the stove right now. You are not focused on one. So it, it's harder to make sure that everything's getting Done right. You're basically just making sure nothing starts on fire rather than, you know, being on, like, you know, Master Chef or something, where you're making, like, perfect food, you know, Michelin star quality food. It's like, now you're making good stuff, but it could be better, you know, and it's because you have so many things on the burners. So just remember that even though you might have a good heart, not everyone wants to see you succeed. And that's a brutally honest fact. It sucks. You know, it's terrible that people think that way, but there's a lot of people that are out there. Why, I don't know. But they don't want to see you succeed for whatever reason. But I'll tell you what, the right people, they are paying attention. So let those haters and those other people, just let them go. You know, I don't care if it, you know, this is the hard part, too. Even just as business owners, you know, um, even our close friends or family, they might not believe in us and what we're doing with our business. That's a hard pill to swallow because you think those people that are closest to us, they'd be our biggest cheerleaders, but a lot of times they're not, you know, they're just kind of like, whatever, you know, they'll go buy. They'll go buy some, you know, basketball players shoes for, you know, 300 bucks. But they won't, you know, do something with you to, to build your, you know, help support your business. But again, once if you decide to try to go social with this, you know, you're going to get people you never knew, you know, leaving you messages saying, you suck, bro. And it's like, oh, okay. Well, thank you very much. I hope, God bless you. I hope you have a great day. You know, that that's, that's how you have to deal with it. But anyway, I thank you for listening today. As always, God bless. Keep pushing through and we'll catch you on the next one. Thank you once again for listening. If you've enjoyed the show, please leave a review and share it with fellow business owners. Your support means the world to me and helps keep the show going strong. I want to give a special shout out to our friends at Yardbook. Their continued support has been instrumental in bringing this podcast to you week after week. If you haven't checked them out yet, visit yardbook.com and see how they can give you the tools to streamline and manage your lawn care business. Also, don't forget to explore the resources and upcoming events that I've collected just for you in the show Notes. These are curated to help you stay ahead in your business with the latest tips, tools and networking opportunities. Whether it's a new tool, an insightful article, or an event you don't want to miss, I've got you covered. Until next time, keep pushing through and God bless. Sam.