← Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
927: False Narratives: Those That Can’t Do, Teach
00:36:01
The internet has changed the way people teach and it will continue to change the way people learn. I need to remind you that you are a pioneer – online business is still in its infancy & you are literally shaping the future.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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You're smart, you're talented. You've got the vision. So why does running your business still feel so hard? Success isn't about working harder, it's about working smarter. And that's exactly why I created the Co op. Inside, you'll get instant access to 12 plus courses, hundreds of templates and real strategies that actually drive sales without all.
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The trial and error.
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These are the exact resources I've used.
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To build a seven figure business.
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So stop spinning your wheels and join me inside. Head to creative templateshop.com membership and make running your business easier today. That's creative templateshop.com membership hiring with Indeed, your search is over. When it comes to hiring, don't go searching for the 1. Just meet your match with Indeed. Get unparalleled access to job seekers with over 350 million unique monthly visitors globally, according to Indeed data and an extended reach through Glassdoor. I love that Indeed makes it easy to hire when we've hired in the past, the process was full of unqualified applicants. With Indeed, we can target the right candidates for the right position, leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day. Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences, so the more you use Indeed, the better it gets and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com strategyour just go to indeed.com strategy hour right now and support our show by seeing you. Heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com strategy hour terms and conditions apply. Need to hire you need Indeed. Hey freelancers, we know what your days look like. You juggle clients, deadlines and that endless to do list. And when it comes to tax time, let's face it, the stress is real. That's why I'm here to talk to you about FreshBooks, the cloud accounting software designed to make the hard part easy. Imagine having all of your expenses neatly organized, your profit and loss report ready to go, and a clear picture of your business health all in just a few clicks. No more late nights drowning in paperwork or searching for lost receipts. Snap photos of your expenses on the go, send professional invoices in seconds, and track payments seamlessly. When tax time comes, everything's prepared and ready for your accountant. Heck, you can even give them custom access to your FreshBooks account for free. Switching to FreshBooks has never been easier. Even if you're coming from Another accounting tool, FreshBooks makes migrating your data simple. Let FreshBooks handle your taxes so you can focus on what you do best. Get FreshBooks now 60% off for 6 months@freshbooks.com that's freshbooks.com get started today and thank yourself tomorrow.
- [18:56]
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I didn't set out to do was not the plan, it was not the goal. But I have broken generational curses with this business and you have that same opportunity. I watched generation after generation struggle, struggle to get by work until their body gave way. Never really get to enjoy their retirement because they were so far gone by the time they got there, worried that there wasn't going to be enough money or relying on government aid to even just survive. I would watch these families growing up who had money and while I never thought, oh that must be nice, I did often wonder could I do that too? They had the leg up. They had the family that paid for college or for their first car or their first house or their wedding. I didn't have any of that. I paid my way through school. I went into debt for it and I since paid that off. I bought all of my cars except the very, very first one, which was literally someone else's vehicle that was run into the ground that they bought a new car and I got the thing that was gonna head to the junkyard. Otherwise it wasn't just me though. Like I've watched my sister and my brother in law similarly create lives for themselves, not doing the same thing. They're not necessarily building their lives in the same way, but I watch them break the pattern just like I was breaking it myself. For the first time in our family's history, both on my side and my spouse's side, the next generation is going to have a leg up. The way my niece and my nephew grows up will be so far different from the life and the childhood that I had and it is so beautiful and also so sad. It's so easy to feel like you lost all of that time and it was robbed from you, and it probably was. You didn't have the same childhood as some of your peers and you had to grow up way too fast. In a lot of ways, I should not be where I am today, but because of the tools I have access to and the power of the Internet, my message reaches thousands. I'd venture to guess the thing that's holding you back is not a lack of knowledge, it's not a lack of skill, it's not a lack of ideas. It's fear. It's fear of failing, it's fear of success. It's the belief that you're too late. Mindset is the thing that will prevent you from moving to the place that you are capable of. Now, I'm going to talk about a couple of those fears and potentially give you some opportunities to rethink those scenarios. But if you want to dive more into mindset, I have an incredible workshop series that I encourage you to check out. Go to bossproject.com mindset life changing stuff in there. One of the fears I see a lot is about timing. Either the timing isn't right or they think they're too late, or they think it doesn't matter anymore because someone else has already done it. There's never going to be a perfect moment. There's never going to be a perfect time. You will always have things in your way. You will always have distractions. You just have to start. You can pave a business that has built in flexibility, but you have to get going. And you're definitely not too late. Like, I don't care if you're 35 or 85. You have so much to offer the world. Just last week I watched this beautiful video of a daughter helping her mom move. Her mom's in her 80s and she's packing her suitcase. And this woman has children and grandchildren and a life that she's built here in the United States. And she put everything in a bag and moved to Paris to paint because that was the thing that she wanted more than anything. And some people would argue that she did it too late or that she's not going to enjoy it to the best of her abilities or that she should have done done it younger. Who cares? Who cares what anyone else thinks? If you're passionate and you have a dream, make it true now. And if you need evidence that it's not too late, Google is it too late? And you will find a plethora of examples of people that started on their dreams and you know them Today you know their name and they're much older than where you are now. I promise you, you will never regret starting. If anything, you'll regret not starting sooner. A lot of people will also get in their head about failure. What if I fail? What if I can't do this? What if I'm bad at it? I think the interesting thing about running a business is very rarely is the worst case scenario going to be a setback. More often than not, the worst case scenario is you are exactly where you are right now. That's the worst case scenario. So in a lot of ways, you not starting is living out the worst case scenario. The best case, you change your entire life for the better. Better matches your dreams, it better matches your desires, it better matches the lifestyle you want. Do you literally want to be living out your worst case scenario? Like, no, of course you don't. Now that's not to say that you're not going to have moments or setbacks or things that you're not good at. Every entrepreneur is going to fail in some way, shape or form. But what separates success is only persistence. You only fail if you give up. You only fail if you stop. What if it actually works? The irony is some people find that inspirational, the what if it works? And other people find it paralyzing because they know that if it works, they will no longer be the person they are today. And if you struggle with adaptability or change, that can feel like a lot. Since launching my first digital product, I've worked with more than 41,000 small businesses worldwide. 41,000 students, over a hundred thousand people on my email list, millions of people on the podcast. It worked. It's working. It will continue to work. If I show up and I get intimidated, just like you don't think, I don't struggle with this. I have the same fears, I have the same doubts, I have the same bad days. I cry. I cry a lot. Like, a lot. But I promise you, your impact can be bigger than you ever imagined. The opportunity is right in front of you. When I started, the tools that are available today simply did not exist. I hacked it all together and hoped it would work out. And it usually did. And if it was janky sometimes in the future, I addressed that and I worked on it and I improved. Now there are powerful platforms like Teachable that make launching easier than ever. Like, you can host your digital products and courses, you can process payments, you can have individualized logins. It's insane. When I started, my only option was to put it on a webpage and hope someone didn't find it. And then when they bought it I would email them the link and then if someone needed refunded or like a payment failed in the future, I had no way to take it away from them. Times have changed. P.S. you can try Teachable if you haven't yet. Bossproject.com Teachable definitely go check it out. It is where we host all of our digital products and courses. Not paid to say it. Just love the platform. It is an affiliate link though, so I do get paid if you purchase. But I was not paid to say it on the podcast. That was all me. I do want to help you out though because a lot of you are one step back. Like you know all these things are true. Maybe you're already creating the content but you haven't necessarily taken that next step. Maybe you're still working one on one with clients, but you want to bring in. I don't like the word passive income. You want to bring in more income from products that you simply have to create once and then you can sell them on repeat. If you want more of that. I want to help. I want to help you package your knowledge. I want to help you figure out how to make that sellable. I want to help you market it. I want you to be successful. It is literally why I'm in business. Digital product Jumpstart is how you build out the ecosystem. It is the stepping stone that shows you how all of your products connect together. It walks you through creating that initial entry point and getting it out into the world. It is game changing and it's definitely something that did not exist when I started and I had to figure out the hard way. So if you want to check that out, definitely go to bossproject.com jumpstart and if you have any questions about it, don't hesitate to message me over at Abigail says on Instagram. That's bossproject.com jumpstart I've already helped nearly 10,000 people launch a digital product. The question is why haven't you? Why haven't you taken that next step? Or maybe you have and you're ready to do more. All great, but I hope this gave you a moment to pause and really appreciate where you are and understand that you're just at the beginning and that this is an evolving industry that is not at all the same as it was 10 years ago. We are at the forefront. We are shaping the future of education. Digital products and corsets are one of the most powerful ways to monetize your knowledge. Fear is normal, but waiting isn't going to change anything. Say yes. Take the leap. I'd love to help you bossproject.com jumpstart and the worst that can happen is you learn something the best your business and life change forever.
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Hey, a few quick favors before you leave. I'd love if you'd share today's episode, send it to a friend who needs to hear it, and post on social.
- [33:38]
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You can show us where you're listening.
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From, your favorite takeaway, or why someone else should listen. Be sure to tag me, Abigail says and ossproject so we can share.
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Share it. Okay.
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Second favor to get podcast updates and.
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All the behind the scenes news from Boss Project.
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I'd love if you'd join my VIP list. Just head to bossproject.com signup to make.
- [33:59]
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Sure I have all your contact details.
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Really love this show. It would mean so much to me.
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If you'd leave a rating and review.
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It not only helps more listeners find.
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The show, but allows us to bring.
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On quality sponsors so we can keep bringing you this valuable content for free.
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Thanks so much for listening. Until next time.