Transcript
A (0:00)
Your knowledge is your currency. You have the ability to turn thoughts, ideas and skills into digital products and courses that are nothing short of life changing. It's really easy to think the things that we're doing or building are worthless when they're intangible foreign.
B (0:28)
Welcome to the Strategy Hour podcast brought to you by Boss Project. I'm your host, Abigail Pumphrey, and I'm dedicated to supporting online businesses. I don't believe in one right way to build a business. I'm here to help you build business your way. One that supports not only the life you have, but the life you want. I'm on a personal mission to help you become financially free. I'm taking all the lessons learned as I turned a layoff into a seven figure online business. I'm here to help you prioritize your life every step of the way. Whether you're creating your first digital product, growing an email list, or scaling an already profitable business. Settle in. It's time to talk strategy.
A (1:10)
For years, I felt like I had to prove myself. I feared that what I was doing wasn't real business. And then it hit me. The Internet was invented. In our lifetime, we're not behind, we're writing history. I think often that weird feeling that we get in our bodies is because it's unfamiliar, not because it's wrong. We think our intuition is telling us something is off, and really it's that it's new. The world of traditional business is rapidly changing and you're building an online business at the beginning of the new digital frontier. Of course, it's hard to feel like an expert when the very thing that you're building towards is just beginning. You're just creating the space for it. Now everything is evolving rapidly and you are at the front of the line. When I started teaching online, there was this old saying that would haunt me. Those that can't do, teach. It took me a long time to believe that that wasn't further from the truth. But in the beginning, I would feed into that narrative and I would convince myself that what I was doing wasn't important or wasn't making an impact, or wasn't affecting people, or wasn't creating real change or wasn't actually helping people build businesses. And it couldn't be further from the truth. The Internet has changed the way people teach. The Internet will continue to change the way people learn. The way we share information is going to evolve, and how that expertise is shared, monetized and scaled is going to evolve right along with it. I need to remind you that you are a pioneer. When I was born, there was no Internet. There was dial up when I was in middle school and there was no high speed Internet until sometime in college. And even then I. I didn't have my first iPhone until I was in my 20s. I think the best way to really come to terms with it is to think about the lives of our grandparents and all of the things that they lived through, all of the changes in society and the way people took in information and the way people learned and the way people moved through the world. In my grandparents lifetime they went from. The only way you could call long distance was by calling an operator that would then connect a line through the actual telephone. Like they would have to physically move a wire from one place to another to connect you to a different part of the country or the world. Now with the Internet, you can reach anyone on any corner of this planet as long as they have Internet access. It has both made our world smaller. But I also would argue more confusing. If Steve Jobs is the equivalent of Tom Edison for technology, who does that make you? Where do you stand in the mix of all of this? You're a pioneer. Online business is still in its infancy. We are literally shaping the future. And you have an opportunity to do this exactly how you want to do it. Traditional business is still important and it still matters, but it is different. Traditional businesses were built on economies for centuries that were bound by location, time and overhead. The online business world creates scalability and access in ways that were never before possible. I think it's so easy to get in your own head to watch some of the things that other people create and you think what they're doing is a scam. What they're doing is not actually helping people. What they're doing is only making them money. It is not helping the lives of other people. And if you're having that thought, you are not in that group. So why do you keep lumping yourself in? Why do you assume that if you share loudly and proudly who you are and what you stand for and the knowledge you have and how you can change people, that that makes you the same as them? It doesn't. Your knowledge is your currency. You have the ability to turn thoughts, ideas and skills into digital products and courses that are nothing short of life changing. It's really easy to think the things that we're doing or building are worthless when they're intangible. But that's really the beauty of them in the first place because there is no inventory, because there is no storefront. Your expertise can be packaged and delivered for anyone to learn from globally. You could have clients on every corner of this planet. And that is beautiful, but also very hard to conceptualize. When my email list got to the point that there are more people on it than could fit in the Chief stadium, I could no longer imagine the work I was doing. There was no way to fathom being in the center of the field and that many people having access to my words, thoughts, ideas and knowledge. Those same ideas that are on this podcast have gone on to reach millions of people. Millions that potentially make up the entire metro area of several urban cities. My brain simply cannot compute and it probably never will. In reality, I am just a girl who grew up in the country with two parents on disabilities and a donkey for a neighbor in a one stop light town, who now sometimes feels like I'm preaching to millions of people from a closet in my bedroom. It's so easy to feel like you're playing pretend when you don't get to see or interact with every client that benefits from the work that you do. And I get it and I've wrestled with it and I understand just how hard that can be sometimes. Because really, all you want to know is that you're helping people. That's why you've started this. That's why you're building this. Because you remember being on this journey. You remember how you felt, you remember how lost you are. You remember that you wish there were resources or tools or someone sharing this kind of information, and you figured it out. You bootstrapped your way there, you taped it together with digital duct tape and you got it to work. And now you're sharing that knowledge with the world. But when you're missing the feedback loop, you can get really in your head really quickly. Now. I definitely think there's natural ways to make this happen. I think a huge part of why I coached and did group coaching for so long is it was such a natural way to interact with the people who were utilizing the things I was putting out into the world. And now I'm often relying on a DM or a comment or an email that my team forwards to me to actually know I'm making a difference. It's so easy when you're the kind of person that carries anxiety or stress, or you're anxious not knowing. Especially when you're the kind of person who thrives on confirmation, on validation, on other people telling you you're doing a good job. Were you the kid in school that didn't care as much about the grade but cared a lot more about the teacher liking you. Yeah, I know how you feel. You have to believe. You have to know deep down. You have to see the work that you're doing as important because the validation may or may not come. People will be impacted by the things you do and say whether they tell you or not. So you don't need to wait for them to say yes. You don't need to seek others approval to keep going. You need to trust that if it was important enough for you to say it, that someone needed to hear it. Because I had such a problem conceptualizing this in the early stages of my business, I developed the philosophy that if it only helped one person, that it was worth it. And so it has become much easier to know and feel good about the work I'm doing when I'm not looking for this massive approval, but rather someone speaking up every now and again. It can feel so lonely. It can feel like you're doing this by yourself and speaking into the void. But I promise you, you're not. There are people listening. There are people paying attention. And whether they like your post or not is kind of irrelevant. You would be shocked how many people read and listen and look at what you do and never say a word. Now if you're one of those people for me, I want you to know that I do want to know you. I do care about the kind of business you're building. I do want to hear what's resonating. I do want to hear your ideas. I do want to know what you want more of. All of that stuff matters to me just like it matters to you. So don't hesitate to message me. Don't hesitate to email my team. I want to hear from you. Once we shake off that feeling that we're not enough and this isn't real and we can move past that, which sometimes you're going to slip back into. And that's okay. I need you to start acknowledging the opportunity that is at your fingertips. You have the ability to create a level of freedom that was never previously possible for you. You have the ability to create more wealth than you know what to do with. And I don't just mean currency. I think wealth can look like so many things. When I set out on this journey, my goal was only to replace my salary. I just wanted to make enough money that I didn't have to go back to a traditional job. I wasn't trying to be famous. I wasn't trying to grow a huge audience. I wasn't trying to reach millions of people. Though, I think there was a part of me that enjoyed the spotlight. I just wanted stability because that was the kind of thing that I didn't have a whole lot of. I didn't have it growing up. I didn't have it in college. I didn't have it when I got laid off the first time or the second time. I remember having $0 in my bank account. I remember having to take a loan from my boyfriend. I remember family members mailing me grocery gift cards because they were worried I couldn't eat. That place can really mess you up. But there's so much more. Beyond stability, there is so much more than you think is possible right now.