How Oversimplification in Marketing & Sales Messaging is Impacting Your Customers Expectations

INTRO:  After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host, Kathryn Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry, without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place. Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter, one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you're You can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life. Welcome to Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast. And here's your host, Kathryn Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, super stoked that you're tuning in to this week's episode. I cannot wait to dive into today's topic [00:01:00] because I want to talk about something called oversimplification and the impact that it has on your messaging and the type of clients that you're attracting and also impacting the way in which we make decisions and therefore create expectation around what it actually takes to create results.

And we can see this across the board in many, many industries, right? I was actually just, um, watching a gentleman talk about him taking this new sort of diet medication and he was sharing how he's taking it and he's showing sort of the you know, the dark side of this type of drug or medication, but also the benefits of it for people who are struggling with obesity.

And he talked about this message back in the 90s that sold, I don't want to say a similar drug, but sold a drug that promised you. Quick and lasting weight [00:02:00] loss. And it was one of the biggest pharmaceutical payouts that ever happened as a result because what ended up happening was people that were taking this drug ended up getting this type of hypertension that either caused them to not be able to breathe or Or tragically, people were dying from it.

So it was a 12 billion payout that the pharmaceutical companies had to pay out to these people that had ultimately suffered as a result of this particular drug. Why I'm sharing this with you is because This type of oversimplification in messaging is seen across the board, and we predominantly see it in the weight loss industry, right?

Like there's this magic pill that you're going to be able to take that miraculously is going to get you to lose weight in a really fast period of time. We also know that That doesn't work. We also know that in order to create sustainable long term change in your life, in your [00:03:00] business, in your relationships, it takes a hell of a lot more than just popping a pill, or taking a drug, or doing something for 30 days.

And I want to share this with you because this type of messaging has, uh, also being very prevalent in the online coaching industry or online course creator, online entrepreneurship industry. Um, and we see this in the messaging, right? Like how to make 10K in 30 days or the three simple steps that's changed everything in my business, or the one thing that's going to make all of the difference.

This type of messaging Is what I call oversimplification. And what it does is, on an extreme measure, something similar to what happened in the 90s with that drug, right? Where people buy into things that could have very tragic results. And I'm not saying this to do any sort of fear mongering. I'm I just want you to know from a seller's perspective, so if you're selling products and [00:04:00] services to people, that you know what you're doing when you're putting stuff like this into messaging because it's really, really vital to sell, in my opinion, with integrity and transparency of what you can and cannot deliver in a certain period of time.

Number two is, is that as a buyer, if you're going to invest in coaching or mentorship or whatnot, that you're looking at that messaging. and you're able to sort of pinpoint it in terms of oversimplification. So therefore, you can ask the questions that you need to ask in order to get the answers. Now, I will be really, really honest with you.

I've done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sales calls, not only in my own business, but in other businesses. What I find really interesting is that when we are honest and transparent about what's possible, right, when we paint this picture of what's possible for people, but when we also say we can't [00:05:00] guarantee a certain result in a certain time frame, I have seen people respond with then they don't want to buy because they want that guarantee.

And what I want to invite you to do from both perspectives, again, from a buying and a selling perspective, I want you to understand what guarantees are, right? Guarantees are really just designed to eliminate any risk that your subconscious brain is coming up with to sort of keep you safe, right? It's to eliminate risk.

I'm going to give you a hundred percent money back guarantee. If you don't get the results you want, if you don't like the product, I'm All of those sorts of things is to get the sale. That's all they're designed to do, right? Because they still can't guarantee the results. Plus lots of times guarantees are banking on the fact that the person's never going to return the product, right?

Cause it's just too much time and effort. Or when it comes to service based online course creation, it's. very, very, uh, intentionally done in [00:06:00] fine print of like, you've got to follow the exact steps that I'm laying out and prove that you have in order to get the guarantee. And again, they're banking on the fact that people won't follow every step by step by step and therefore won't have any grounds to get a full refund or whatever.

I'm sharing this with you because to me, It's infiltrating the industry in a way that I believe is setting people up to fail. And the reason I say that is because entrepreneurship is hard, right? It is hard. And if there was a shortcut and a magic pill and a easy way out and a three step simple process, then every damn entrepreneur would be successful.

They would have no issues. They wouldn't be stressed or frustrated at any point. There would be no challenges that arrive. It would just be smooth sailing. And you know, and I know that life, business, relationships, anything that we want in [00:07:00] life is not like that, right? There's ebbs and flows, there's ups and downs, right?

To me, when I say it's setting people up to fail, it's creating an expectation that things happen really quickly. And I want to share this with you because I think it's really important to be really transparent with you about the challenges that entrepreneurship is, and the journey that it is. And I've been doing this for Six, seven years now, full time as an entrepreneur.

I grew up in an entrepreneurial household. My dad's an entrepreneur. My grandpa was an entrepreneur. I've got cousins and relatives who are all entrepreneurs. Like I have lived and breathed entrepreneurship my entire life. And I want to say that One, every business goes through seasons, right? So sometimes it's really fricking good and you're like, oh yeah, things are awesome.

And then you're hit with something that can rock you, right? And I wanna share a few of those examples at various [00:08:00] stages of my journey with you, because I want you to see. How I navigate through this and that it's sometimes really easy one, I think to see and look at an entrepreneur and think they have it all together.

And they've got all of the answers and things are just smooth fricking sailing. But in reality, we're constantly navigating. Obstacles and challenges and we're constantly up leveling our ability to do that, right? When I first would get hit with something, it would rock me and I've had to create the resiliency and the mental toughness to sort of move through that.

Now I feel like I came to the game with a lot of that already, right? Lots of people will say you're wired differently, Kathryn. And for me, I never really understood what that meant. Now that I'm like, six, seven years into entrepreneurship, I get it, right? And I think I attribute it to a few things. I played competitive sport growing up.

So I needed a lot of mental toughness to navigate [00:09:00] That whole journey, right? Trying out for teams, getting cut, playing at that high level, the commitment, the discipline, right? The times where I wasn't starting in a match, uh, the times that I was not even dressing in a match, right? The times that I would let my team down on the back line and make a stupid mistake and the other team would score.

There's a lot of mental toughness and resiliency that's required to play at that level and I had to cultivate that growing up. And then carry that through various stages of my life and my career when things didn't go the way that I wanted them to, you know, but my journey hasn't come without challenges and obstacles.

I remember when we had our brick and mortar, you know, like six months, seven months in, we were looking at, The money going out of the business. Right. And we had spent a lot of money investing and there were a lot of things that we had to tighten up, including our bookkeeping, including, you know, [00:10:00] our ordering and inventory management.

There was a lot of things in that first six to eight months that. Would keep most people up at night, and it sure enough did right? When you're seeing money go out, they often say like, your business is bleeding money, and that's what it felt like, right, it just felt like we could just never get on top of the sales, and that is something I think that's pretty common in In a new business, right, where it feels like you're bleeding money and you're not making any, or you're putting a ton of money out and you're like, when will I actually get to either pay myself or when will I get on top of this?

And these are things that people don't often talk about. And I remember losing nights of sleep over this, wondering how I'm going to get kind of over it. I'm running a brick and mortar business that relies on people to be in the store to bottle and purchase wine by law. So it's not like a brick and mortar that I could just get a store up online and get sales rolling in.

We eventually were able to do that because the government was like, This is sort of [00:11:00] a gray area with your business. Not a lot of businesses require you to be physically in the store to sprinkle your yeast for your wine and then be here to bottle it. Our business literally would have shut down overnight if we were not able to sell online and then bottle for our customers, which is what we did.

And I had to roll with the punches, right? I had to roll with lockdown happening and me having a brick and mortar and I could have curled up into a ball and gave up. But I didn't. And that was a really hard time, right? We were also just in the midst of deciding to sell and all of a sudden COVID happens and we're like, what the hell?

Like, I want to sell the business. Will anybody now buy it? Because it's closed to the public and nobody knows the fate or the future of brick and mortar. We didn't know how long it was going to last. That was a huge challenge to overcome. Right? I've been in my online business now, uh, [00:12:00] for well over four years, and I've hit many roadblocks, right?

I've had clients who have raved about me, loved working with me, um, I have screenshots to show it, they got epic results, and then after 12 months of working with me, tell me I'm the worst coach ever and it was the worst investment. I've had people very close to me completely plagiarizing copy, my copy, my entire funnel.

Everything, just by swapping out a few words here and there, and I've had to reach out to them and have those hard frickin conversations. I've seen my ads, uh, skyrocket in cost. I've seen, um, sales dips. in certain months, right? These are things that happen all the time in business. I've been in a position in my business where I've questioned, is this the niche I want to be in?

Is this the thing I want to be doing? I've gone through many identity shifts and up levels. And I'm sharing this with you because I never want to paint the picture [00:13:00] that there's this simple linear path to success. I never want to paint the picture that. I don't go through my own shit in the background and have stuff going on all the time that I'm navigating, right?

I've had people not pay me, right, after months of working with them, just like completely disappearing with no response or nothing. I've, you know, navigated taking a lot of this shit personally, right? When you're building a personal brand and you're putting your heart and soul into that personal brand, it's really easy to take things personally.

With my brick and mortar, it was different because it was a product and it felt very separate to me. But when I'm writing copy and providing insight and background on messaging and offer creation and all of that, it's a real personal experience. And so you can take things personally. I've had to navigate like, Overgiving and over delivering, right?

There's so much I don't think we talk about on this journey. And to me, entrepreneurship isn't for [00:14:00] everybody. And I know that it feels like it's this big popular thing right now, right? It's really easy to start a business online. It's really easy to get it up and running, but like weight loss. Like lifestyle changes, like relationships, it takes freaking work.

It takes work. And that every business goes through a season, right? There's going to be some really great times, and then there might be some really shitty times. And if You have this expectation that you're going to make 10k in 30 days because you bought into somebody's message that was selling you that.

I want to show you that that is what I call oversimplification of messaging. It's painting this picture that all you need to do is follow these three steps and you'll get there. And to me, that couldn't be further from the truth. And to me, marketing and sales should [00:15:00] be truth selling. Truth to me is the highest frequency that's going to naturally pull people into you, but it's what is needed I think now more than ever, especially in the online industry.

When you're selling, regardless of what you're selling, is that truthful? Can you deliver on what you're promising? Can you be able to stand behind the message, right? Does any part of that message feel wobbly or shaky or like you can't deliver on it? And is anything that you're putting out there oversimplifying the process?

Is there any way that you can bake in things within your message that showcase that entrepreneurship is hard and that there is no easy Clear cut pathway, and it's not linear. And especially if you're building a personal brand, it's like personal development on steroids, [00:16:00] right? Because you're constantly up leveling your identity to be the person you need to be at the level of business that you're at.

Right? Um, and when I think about getting copied right from somebody who I knew well, right? I knew them. At that point, to me, that was like, it's time to up level, right? It's time to protect my intellectual property. It's time to start trademarking things, right? And, and the reason for that is because my work is my work.

Like your work is your work, right? And that includes everything I put out on the internet. That's everything I'm recording and podcast, right? This is my voice and my work. And I don't think it's fair to have that ripped off, right? Obviously. And so that was just like, well, time to uplevel, right? I had, you know, clients not pay.

And then I had to uplevel and put processes in place that, that supported me in navigating that. [00:17:00] What does the company do when this happens? Right? So that I'm not have to, Like I don't have to be in the weeds of that, right? That this just gets sort of handled without me having to like craft a new email every time.

Again, I'm sharing this sort of behind the scenes stuff with you because entrepreneurship is hard and I hear so often from people who say that they didn't realize how long it was going to take them to execute x, y, and z, or they expected to get results quicker, right? And whenever I think about that, I totally understand that.

There was definitely a season in my business that I was like, why isn't it happening? And that's when I shifted from that short game thinking, which I shared with you on last week's episode to long game thinking, right? That everything that I'm doing in my business is a long game [00:18:00] with a long game mentality, meaning that every decision I make, every move I make sure I might be making really snappy decisions in the moment, but I'm doing it for the long term benefit of the company.

And when we can shift that perspective. One, we stop oversimplifying, and two, we look at the sustainability as the thing. What's interesting is, I read a post, months and months and months ago, and a woman was like, no one's buying sustainability. And that might be true, right? I think, I think there are lots of people that want quick fixes.

They want to buy into that 10k and 30 day promise. They want to buy into the 100k months. in 90 day promise, right? They want to buy into the 50 pounds lost in 30 days promises. Absolutely. We live in a society like that. It's why people bought into the weight loss drug in the nineties. It's why we're seeing a crazy rise in the weight loss drug now that's out in the market, right?

That, that gentleman was talking about, [00:19:00] he's wrote a book on it called the magic pill. Everybody's looking for a magic pill, some secret. shortcut, some hack or code that's going to somehow quantum leap them into these massive crazy months. And what's interesting is, is that when we get there, right, you get to the 100k, you lose the 50 pounds, what's changed?

Right? If you get to 100k months, can you actually sustain that? And I'm talking about like, energetically, I'm talking about client delivery, I'm talking about problems that will arise, right? Can you actually navigate that? One of the things that I know to be true is, is that I've grown my business consistently year over year, month over month, year over year, and I've done it knowing that energetically, I had to do it this way because I wouldn't have been able to sustain any bigger problems along the way because I needed to, like I said, up level my identity to get to a place where I could navigate that.

And I come with a lot of resilience [00:20:00] and a lot of mental toughness and I don't give up easily. And I think that for me, when I think of entrepreneurship, It really does boil down to that, right? It boils down to your willingness and ability to be in it for the long game and the long haul and doing what needs to be done in order to sustain that.

It doesn't mean you can't pivot or change your mind or anything like that, but it just means that you're in it, you're committed to this journey. It's like a relationship or a marriage, right? You're committed to it. Now, Granted, if you're not happy or satisfied or fulfilled, that's a whole other conversation.

But if you're coming into this and you're thinking, I'm going to start my business today, or I'm going to start my business in January, and, and then be frustrated that you haven't achieved 100k months by March or April or May, We've got to put some perspective there. I'm not saying you can't do it, right?

People do [00:21:00] do it. Absolutely. People can create whatever they want to create. But again, everyone comes with their own level of circumstance. And if you're not reaching the goals that you want, is it your natural instinct to want to throw in the towel or to change course or to pivot completely or to change niches completely or whatever it might be?

Because at the end of the day, Entrepreneurship is hard. I'm not saying that you can't find fulfillment and joy, and it can't be feel effortless in some capacity. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that there's going to be some hard days and some hard decisions, and you may not reach the results that you expected to reach in the timeframe you wanted to reach them.

And it's often as a result of what I call oversimplification in messaging, right? Like there's some secret hack, magic pill. some code that someone's gonna, you know, infuse into your DNA that's going to change you overnight. [00:22:00] Like, it's oversimplification. And the minute that we can release that notion that there's this uber simple path to getting what we want in a certain time frame, and there's some hack around that, that's, that somebody's holding near and dear to their heart.

And you have to pay them millions of dollars to get it. And I'm saying this slightly sarcastically because I'm frustrated and tired with the messages because I really, really am here to support people in getting their mission driven, purpose driven work out into the world. And it breaks my freaking heart when people come to me, one, and I've had experiences that didn't line up with what they may be expected and or they want to give up because they're not seeing the results quick enough.

And that breaks my heart, right? I'm not saying that you keep [00:23:00] slogging in your business that's not making money, right? I think there's Different ways that you can make money. And I think sometimes we get really focused on, well, I've gotta sell this offer and it's gotta be this thing and I've gotta bring money in this way.

Right. And I think if we open ourselves up to knowing that we might need to create income or revenue somewhere else in the earn term, that doesn't mean you're a failure. Right. With my brick and mortar. I literally was living off of my husband in order to fund my life in some way, right? And my life at that point wasn't this lavish lifestyle.

It was like I worked in the store and I came home and he was doing the groceries and buying the groceries and stuff because I wasn't making money. Now, I didn't want that to be the reality going forward for the rest of our relationship, but it was what needed to happen in that moment because I couldn't take money out of the company, right?

So, um, I encourage people sometimes if you're starting your [00:24:00] business new and you don't have the revenue coming in is like have a conversation with your spouse is this something that they want to support you through and not from again like at this needy I need to rely on them place but from a place of this is what's going to be required for me to be able to do this and if that's not something that's available to you then it's like Maybe you need to have another source of revenue.

That might mean a job, right? That might mean a job for the interim so that you can get your business up and off the ground and not feel the pressure of having to maybe go into debt or like that you're not making money or whatever it might be. But I want to come back to the message around all of this is that One, to have a look at your own messaging that you're putting out there and check to see if you're oversimplifying the process.

And if you're sitting there going, Kathryn, well, what, what does that look like? [00:25:00] Oversimplification to me is, is promising some rapid transformation in a really short period of time that you cannot promise. that you cannot guarantee that you're just trying to fit into some message that's being told to you that you need to have in order to be successful, right?

And it's usually how to lose 50 pounds in 20 days or how to double your productivity in seven days or how to, you know, make 100k months in 30 days sort of messaging, right? It's this very grandiose, Quick or the three simple steps that you need in order to create 100k months. When I hear messaging like that, to me I think, interesting, right?

Is it just three steps? Because I know what it takes to run a company and I can guarantee you I'm not I'm not doing three steps every single day to create 100k months, right? It's, it's not that simple. And [00:26:00] that's what I'm trying to say to you. Like, can you create a business that has simplicity baked into it that doesn't require you to post 24 seven on social media or send hundreds of emails or whatever?

Absolutely. You absolutely can create that, right? But what I'm saying is, is that. There, it takes work, right? It takes work and it's hard work to, to do it and that you will be faced with obstacles and you will be faced with challenges and it will come down to your resiliency and your mental toughness to navigate that.

That doesn't mean that you self sacrifice yourself, or you stay in a toxic environment, or whatnot, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about if you really want to get your work in the hands of more people, and you're mission driven, and you want to change the way that we do things, and this is the, this is the path you know you're here to take, then I'm here to tell you that We need to stop using oversimplification to sell to people, but we need to stop buying into it.

And we [00:27:00] need to set some really clear expectations of what it actually takes to sustain a business that is profitable. Um, and to be able to do this year after year after year, regardless of the season. Right? Um, that's what I'm here to say, and that's what I'm here to share with you, that you can create simplicity in your business, but it's going to take work, right?

So if you think of creatively owned my company right now, you know, I went from being a sole proprietor to being incorporated, right? So there's a whole legal, um, process there that has to be undertaken, right, to incorporate. I've gone from being solo in my business to hiring four people now who are all on contract work, right?

So they're not full time employees in my company, but that takes time to define a role, to hire, to train, and sort of manage, right? I don't really manage people. The people that work for me, [00:28:00] I did that very strategically. I hired people that are self sufficient and sort of can operate on their own with well defined sort of role, like this is my expectation, but that takes work.

That's an investment of time, right? I've hired people in my world when I worked, when I had creatively owned that I, that didn't work out, that I had to let go, right? I had to let those people go, even though I really liked them as people, they just weren't a right fit. For me and the company, I've had someone copy me outright that I've had to reach out legally to and have a really tough conversation about, and I had to forget about, uh, the fact that they might not like me anymore or worry about me.

I've had clients who, like I said, have raved about me, who I have screenshots praising their, their results, and then. Out of nowhere, at the end of our time together, getting this feedback that's like, this was the worst investment I made, this wasn't for me, and blaming me for it. Outright blaming me, saying this is, this was an absolute leadership [00:29:00] issue, which rocked me, right?

Because I was like, where did that come from? Um, I've had to learn, and I've had to navigate, and there's a lot of stuff here that, you know, again, I think we don't, We don't show enough about, but I wanted to share this message with you today about oversimplification and how I don't want to be a proponent of it, right?

Which is why I never guarantee results in a certain time frame, which is why if you get on a sales call with me and you ask me, what can, will I make my, my money back in six months? I outright say, I have no idea. And I'm not saying that because I'm not confident in the work that I do. I have clients who have made their investment back and, and then some, but I don't, it's, it's up to you to create the results in your reality, right?

So just to follow a blueprint or a roadmap. and expect results to me is the mindset issue right there and then and there, right? That to me is what's holding you back from actually creating the results because you're [00:30:00] so focused on well if I just follow these five steps I'm going to be a millionaire.

That's the problem, inherent problem right there with a lot of what's happening in the online coaching industry. Um, so I really hope that this episode has given you some insight into hardships and challenges and whatnot, and what is required to actually navigate and build a sustainable business. It takes a lot of mental toughness and a lot of resiliency and it takes a lot of self regulation, self regulation, right?

It takes a lot of doing the work, the inner work that's needed to stay calm and grounded and not be rocked at your core and not get rocked off your center when you get bad feedback or question your ability or question what you're doing or anything like that. So. I wanted to share that with you because if you're in a season right now where you're questioning your business or you're wondering why you haven't created the results [00:31:00] that you wanted, or you expected to create results quicker, or if you feel like it's really hard right now, then it very well could be.

And it's probably just a season, a season that you're navigating and that to make a decision off of an experience in the moment, right? On how you're feeling right now in this present moment, without sort of looking at everything you've built, all that there is still possible for you. That to me is that short term thinking that I'm wanting to support you in, in shifting through.

And to start to look at your business from a long game perspective and start to look at your business as something you want to build sustainably and Let's shift the narrative on that and shift the behavior on that. Let's be part of that shift so that [00:32:00] we can shift the industry. If you're feeling shitty about the industry or if you don't like the marketing and sales strategies and tactics that are out there, and if you feel misaligned with the way you're being taught to communicate what you do, let's shift that.

Right? It starts with me. It starts with you. It starts with everybody else. We've got to be the change. That means we've got to show up and communicate with authenticity, integrity. We've got to communicate with. you know, ethics. And that means that if you feel icky about a message, then don't use it.

Because again, that comes back to mental toughness and resiliency. That comes back to owning your inner power and taking responsibility for your business. It's not about giving your power away to a messaging, a marketing, a big guru out there that says, Oh, it has to be this way. If you feel uncomfortable with that, You don't have to do it because it will be the people out there that want to show up authentically, transparently, and [00:33:00] ethically in this world.

Whatever it is that you're selling, that's going to change the way that we do things. And that is being my mentality around marketing and sales in general, but predominantly in the online coaching space, right? When I nearly walked away from it all, I nearly was like, I don't want to do this because I don't buy into this stuff and therefore I'm just going to walk away or I can be the change and I decided I'm going to be the change.

I'm going to support others in doing the same and owning their truth and being able to show up and truth sell in a lot of ways. Selling your truth versus trying to conform and fit yourself into a box that in my opinion. isn't ethical sales, right? Oversimplification is not ethical sales, right? Selling somebody on a pathway that is only achievable by 0.

1 percent of people is not ethical, right? It's not. And to set people up with this [00:34:00] expectation that they're going to generate all these results in a really short period of time is not ethical. Again, I'm not trying to say that things aren't possible. I'm not trying to say that creating your own reality isn't possible.

But what I am saying is, is that there's a lot of oversimplification in it. So, be aware of that. Be mindful of that. Open your eyes to that. Start to feel into the way certain messages make you feel. Start to feel into why they make you feel that way. Get curious. Observe, you know. Be discerning when it comes to that.

Take your time with that. I was just talking to a client recently who, uh, invested in Spellbound and she said, I took my time to meticulously decide whether this was for me. And that, I'm like, hell yeah to that, right? You should do that. If you're investing a high ticket investment, you should take your time to think about it.

And sales processes that don't allow you to do that? I would question. I would [00:35:00] absolutely question. So with that, I'm going to leave you. I hope you have a fab week. And of course, if you have any questions at all, you've enjoyed this episode, it's been insightful to you. I highly recommend that that you reach out to me over at Creatively Owned and DM me, say hello, I'd love to hear from you.

Cheers! Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time. You can also find us on social media at Creatively Owned and online at creativelyowned. com. Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.