The Perception of Value and the Imbalance I See in the Online Coaching Industry

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 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, Superstar Theatre in this week's episode. I cannot wait to dive in today's topic [00:01:00] because I want to talk about value and value from the perspective of like, not what is the value that I'm giving in my programs and, and whatnot, or my offers or what value am I providing in what I'm selling, but more so the value that we are putting out into the world, uh, for free in order to Uh, build that Nolik and trust, attract clients and bring people into our world.

And if you're somebody that's sitting in your business right now who feels, maybe you feel exhausted or tired or feel like the effort that you're putting in far exceeds what you're being compensated with in terms of money. and clients, then I would love to invite you into this conversation with me today.

I don't know if I have a solution yet, but it is something that I've been in deep contemplation with, and anytime I get sort of this questioning of how we do things, which is an innate, value or gift of mine. I'm constantly questioning [00:02:00] industry systems, efficiencies, you name it. It's what I always sort of did in corporate.

It's what I did in my consulting practice before I was in corporate. And it's what I've done in my brick and mortar and now my online business. and the industry that we're in, I continually question, does this have to be the way it has to be, or is there a better way? So I'm constantly looking to innovate.

I'm constantly looking to improve what might not be serving us in this moment. And the online industry, whether you're a coach, consultant, course creator, influencer, whatever it might be, It is a very, very unique beast and a lot of the practices that I feel like were passed down to us from those that went before us were weird.

Like they were just weird practices that no other industry, no other business, no other, Nobody else does and value and the value [00:03:00] we give away for free quote unquote to attract and build that know, like, and trust is, is one of those things. One of those other things is, is sharing money wins on social media as a way to build credibility and proof that we know what we're doing and, and we're good at what we're doing.

Um, again, somebody who has 20 years of experience, uh, undergraduate in marketing and master's in communication and have worked. Cross industries from, you know, not-for-profits, to startups, to corp, big corporations, global companies. I've never in my life, anytime that I am looking to pitch myself or pitch my services.

Have I ever showed them my bank statement going like, look how much money I've made, and like, look how much money my clients have made. Those were never grounds for hiring me. And yet, in the online space, it was something that was heavily taught. You gotta screenshot your wins, you gotta show people all the [00:04:00] sorts of things.

And it never really quite sat right with me. But I didn't know necessarily why or why we did it. And I just started to question it in general, which is why I've very much veered away from doing any of that sort of marketing. But the other big one that I see is sort of this value output for value return.

And I want to dive into this because like I said, I don't really have the solution for it, but I feel like this is a conversation I'd love to have with people. And if you're open to it, I'd love for you to drop into my DMs at Creative Lyon or shoot me an email at kathryn at creativelyon. com and Ask me, you know, like, let's have this conversation, have an open conversation, because like I said, I don't know if I have the solution for it yet, but I am working towards a solution for it, um, in my own business, but also in support of my clients, because like myself, a lot of the clients that come to me have [00:05:00] undergraduates, masters, some have PhDs, some have been doing this work for 20, 30 years.

And. It used to be, I don't want to dance on reels, Kathryn. I don't want it to be so performative. I don't want to have to constantly prove what I bring to the table. And I would often help them with really positioning themselves as an authority or, uh, credible or however we want to call it in order to really stand out in a way that didn't have them sort of selling their souls, so to speak, or having to, like, overly prove and convince people.

And that works. And that's beautiful. And I've done that with many of my clients, but what I'm starting to really see now, especially with changes in the algorithm, changes in what's going on on Instagram and a lot of the platforms really, and That there is a, it seems to be, there's this notion that we've got to provide so much value for [00:06:00] free before we can ever expect somebody to pay us for what we bring to the table and the value we bring to the table.

The problem I have with that is, is that what that often looks like for a lot of business owners is they're showing up for Five, seven times a day on social media. They're they've turned themselves into a content factory where they're like overly producing content. Um, not just on one platform, but on like multiple platforms in order to have that reach.

They're sending multiple emails a week to their list to monetize that list. So to speak, they're giving away free workshops. They've developed multiple different lead magnets, you name it. These are just some of the examples that I'm providing with you in terms of like the free value that is almost being expected in a lot of ways, be in order to have somebody build that know, like, and trust with you.

And it's, it's a mindset, it's also a belief, that we often hear from [00:07:00] other people. And one of the things that I know about myself is that when somebody, when I question something, I get curious about something and I go, Is this really how it has to be? Right? Like, in corporate, or as a consultant, when I used to pitch my gigs as a consultant, the companies I was pitching to didn't know me.

It's not like I had a presence online. I didn't have a website back then. Literally, we didn't have a website. We didn't have, you know, I didn't have an Instagram. I didn't have a Facebook. I wasn't churning out value content. I literally put a proposal together and I would pitch them based on what it is that they were looking for.

And then I would go in for an interview, like I would a job interview, and then they would hire me, or they wouldn't hire me, they'd hire someone else. So, the time that was spent was very productive in that I was putting proposals together to sort of pitch the service and then I would spend the time interviewing with the person and then I would get hired or not hired and these are for like [00:08:00] quarter of a million half a million million dollar contracts These aren't like, you know a 97 offer or 200 offer or whatever this is literally for over a hundred thousand dollar contracts and I'm sharing this with you because I think like anything If we want to change the way things are done, we have to come at it from a different perspective.

And oftentimes that different perspective comes from us having these lived experiences where we not necessarily are comparing going, I want my business to look like this because my last business looked like this, but going, wait a minute. You know, if I was able to land contracts at that level and that price point without having to churn out content five days a week, seven days a week, you name it, then could that not be true for my online business?

I'm delivering. the same value. I come with the same experience. That experience is continually growing and this can [00:09:00] be applied to yourself. So if you're listening to this right now and you're going, I have an undergraduate, I have a master's or I have all these certifications. I've been doing this for 10, 15, 20 years.

Then you can totally apply this to your life and your business. But there's two things that I want you to consider here. Number one is I'm, I'm showing you the thing that I'm contemplating and the thing that I, I'm contemplating. Don't necessarily agree with from a belief perspective of this is the way it's done because we hear that messaging and we see that across the board, right, is, well, you're not meant to love your job, or that's what you're meant to do is you're meant to have a nine to five, right?

These are all beliefs that have been instilled in us based on. Those that have gone before us and the way things have always been done. But if we don't like the way that things have always been done, then we have the choice right now to change that. Not only at a system level, which I'm talking about, but at a personal level.

Like if you don't like the way your life is or your business is, you always have the choice to [00:10:00] change it. What ends up happening is, is that we don't actually feel like we have the choice because we're buying into these beliefs that this is the way it's always been done. And the value piece here is something I've been contemplating, like I said, for a while now, where I started to question, well, how much do I have to give away for free in order to position myself as somebody that can help people.

When, like I said, I have an undergraduate, a master's, 20 plus years of experience, I know the value I bring to the table. And yet I'm in an industry that's telling me that I need to show up and give so much away for free so that people get to know me. They get to like me, they get to see the quality of the work that I bring to the table.

And yet, You know, I can land quarter of a million, half a million, million dollar contracts. And I don't have to do any of that other than put together a proposal that the proposal definitely showcases what I bring to the [00:11:00] table and then a resume, so to speak, and an interview, which then 100 percent showcases that I know what I'm sort of talking about.

But if you look at that, it's very streamlined, right? There isn't all of the upfront effort of giving work away for free. Now, These contracts and these companies and these businesses I work for would never have said to me in that interview, Oh, by the way, like, do you mind putting together an entire marketing plan?

An entire strategic plan? Would you mind working for free for like, I don't know, two, three, six months so that we can see if we actually trust you and that you know what you're talking about and you know what you're doing, right? They would never say that. And so. I look at that and then I look at the online business world and I think to myself, there's something that's not sort of working here, but also there's something bigger at play.

And that is the value, this churning of the model. And I said this years ago, like I said this, [00:12:00] Probably four years ago that the way in which the course creator space was created was basically on the, on the teaching model, right? Educational, follow these steps, do as I say, and you will be successful, which then was just breeding more of the same sort of thought process and mentality of the school system, right?

There's a right and a wrong. You, you know, you're probably doing it wrong and therefore I'll show you how to do it right. It doesn't cultivate creative thinkers outside of the box thinkers. It just keeps us all still in that fricking box. Right? So that's one of the things that I want you to sort of consider as I'm sharing this with you is one, you can apply this to your absolute life, but then I want to really highlight, I think some of the bigger things at play here for a conversation to have and, and to hear from you, because for me, That's partly the other side of this is that this isn't a one way conversation.

I'm not doing this work and sharing on my podcast to just talk at people, right? I want to be talking with people and to open the [00:13:00] conversation and to bring in different thoughts and ideas and notions and understandings and all of those sorts of things. The other big thing at play here, the second thing at play here is a more deep rooted.

pattern or way of sort of being in this world. And that is that our value is based on output and production. Meaning the amount of work you put in is the amount of work you'll be producing. Compensated for, right? So if you think about the nine to five model, right? It's like show up eight hours a day for five days a week.

We'll give you two days off and then we'll give you a couple weeks of holidays a year, depending on where you live in the world, that'll vary. But where I live, by law, it's mandatory, I think two to three weeks. I can't remember. I've been outta corporate for so many years now, but it's either two to three weeks mandatory, which I always thought was asinine, right?

I was like, so you, you are expecting your workers to work five days a week, eight hours a day. and [00:14:00] only giving them three weeks in 12 months off for rest and break and whatnot. And yet, that is what we've basically replicated in the online coaching industry. Course creator, influencer, content creation, you name it, that's what we've replicated.

And yet, so many of us started this business so that we had the freedom and the autonomy that we could show up and be our authentic self and, you know, honor, rest and rejuvenation, but also do work that we truly, deeply love. And I'm not saying that, you know, um, oftentimes I'll hear, well, I just want to be the thing.

Right. And I, and I get that. We do need to market our services, but I think we need to reconsider what that looks like. And that's what I'm wanting to really dive into today because I think that the value piece is just a replication of what we've [00:15:00] always just done. right? It's that product production line model.

It's that like, you have to work all of these hours in order to be valued and compensated for what your gifts are in this world. And I want to see that changed. And the first place that we need to change it, in my opinion, is in the course creator online space, because most of us have tried to break away from the mold.

If not all of us and we want to create impact in this world and the only way that we're going to create the impact that we want in my opinion is if we're thriving as human beings and I don't believe that we're going to be thriving as human beings if we have to turn ourselves inside out and give so much value for free in order to quote unquote prove that what we have is of value because like I said, we would never ask a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot, To just work for free until you prove to us that you're worthy [00:16:00] of being paid.

Now, I'm not saying that we want to gatekeep either and hold everything behind closed doors and go, I'm not giving you anything. That's not what I'm saying either, but there has to be a balance. And right now, I don't feel like there's a balance. I feel like we're still churning out the way that we would in corporate, but there's a lot greater risk here for many of us, right?

Because it is our business. So corporate, there is a quote unquote, this sense of security and that You're showing up at a corporate job and you're being paid a salary every single month and there is quote unquote this guarantee or security with that, right? Of course, yes, you can be laid off and all the things, but lots of things that I hear from people are, you know, I have this undergrad, I have this master's, I have a PhD, I have all these years of experience and I feel like I'm paying myself a dollar an hour because I'm churning out all this content.

I'm showing up for free all the time and people are paying. [00:17:00] you know, they're, they're questioning the payment or they, they don't, they can't pay or whatever. And that's fine. I get that piece of it, but it's like, at what point am I going to be compensated for the actual value that I bring to the table?

And yes, there's a deeper dive here of like, well, are you valuing yourself in the process? Yes, we can absolutely go down that pathway. I'm not going down that pathway today because I think there is a deeper thing there as well, but I think there's a systemic problem, and that's the notion that there's this belief that we've got to give away so much value for free in order to prove that we're worth it.

We are worthy and we've got not even worthy, but prove that what we have is of value. And there's also this imbalance of like, well, how can we expect people to pay us if we're not willing to do that? And if we actually boil down, business. I'm just going to boil it [00:18:00] down to sort of like the true essence of business and providing a service is just a relationship between two people.

And what I feel like has happened in all my contemplation, it's reflected how dysfunctional we are in relationship to self and our relationships with other people as a result of that. And At the end of the day, you have a choice to change and we as individuals, if we want to see a better world and see a better business model and business models and way of doing business, then we have to change ourselves in order for that ripple effect to happen.

And if we boil it back down to that relationship piece, right, can you imagine being in a relationship with somebody who was just take, take, take, take, take, take, take, and I'll give you a little bit, compensation, money, quote unquote, in business, or I'll give you a little bit of love when you give me all of these things first?

Right? Or can you imagine being in a relationship where you have to [00:19:00] prove yourself over and over and over again in order for somebody to fully see sort of who you are? And again, there's a dynamic here and, and there's a deepness that needs to happen, but I'm just highlighting some of the things here because that relationship with self and business is one of the same.

It comes up in that systemic. culture that we've created. And to me, it's built on the Jeff Walker launch model. And then it just kept snowballing from there. And we see a lot of big names in the industry using that model or a version of it. And we've seen that model evolve because most people started to question it going, wow, like I'm showing up for five days for free, pouring my heart and soul into this, giving some of my best work away.

And I'm not seeing the sales on the other side of it. Is it worth it? Right? Which brings me back to my whole other point is that a lot of people I've been talking with who have masters and [00:20:00] PhDs and 20 years of experience are questioning the same thing. Like I could literally go to a corporate job, get paid, You know, 150, 000, 200, 000 for the, the experience that I have and the level of work and value I bring to the table.

And yet I'm making less than that, quite a bit less than that in my business. And I'm having to do a hell of a lot more work. Those are the conversations that. People are bringing to me going like, is it actually worth it? You know, and at the end of the day, everybody has a choice and it's your choice to decide whether it's worth it or not, but I totally get why people are feeling like that because.

Again, most people that I work with, these heart led business owners, they want to do the work, you know, they want to be in work with their clients, they want to create the impact, and yet there is a marketing component that's, that needs to happen in business. But if we look at relationships as sort of the foundation of, building a [00:21:00] business in general, then let's start there in terms of what's our relationship to self and what's our relationship to others and how are we treating others in relationship?

And this goes both ways, right? And I think sometimes it's hard to sort of spot, but again, I've helped VPs, CEOs, you name it in business and small business owners. And I can see very quickly, I'm going, huh, this is why this is appearing. In your reality, because on the outside facing outward, this brand that you've positioned and you're putting out into the world, absolutely.

positions you as an authority and a leader. But then when I look at what's going on inside the business, how one is in relationship with their employees or their team members, how they're in relationship with investments they've made in coaches or mentors. And by that, I mean squeezing the guts out of your mentor going, I need to get everything out of you because I'm paying you.

Right? So it's like looking [00:22:00] at all of the areas of your life and business, that that might be a reflection and what can sort of be changed as a result of that. And oftentimes it comes back to how we value other people, how we value ourselves for sure, but how we are valuing other people. And if we don't value them consciously or unconsciously, if we're just sitting in this me, me, me, me, me, and we're not actually aware of the ripple effect and the impact that that sort of.

essence has on the world around us, then we are going to continue to contribute to this model that most of us don't want to be in. And if you want to stay in that model, cool. If you want to stay in the model of like, how much money can I make and how many people can I attract into my world and it's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, then, and we don't see the other person as, one with us, [00:23:00] right?

We're not separate. We're all connected. And if we're approaching relationship to ourselves and others with a lack of compassion, a lack of love, a lack of awareness, and a lack of openness to see the value that they bring to the table, then we're going to continue to have that in our reality. And I started this saying, I don't have a solution for the, the value piece in, in business and how much value is required to build that know, like, and trust.

But I think it boils back down to our relationship with self and our relationship, therefore, with others, you know, there's the saying, right? Treat others how you want to be treated. And that seems so simple and such a sort of basic phrase. But it is so true that if we can sit for a moment and not see ourselves as separate from one another, but rather as [00:24:00] Together with one another that will naturally change the way we do business in general and that will naturally change the way we do marketing and sales and that will naturally change what is required of us because right now there's an imbalance and the imbalances is that there's a ton of output that's being required to give for free in order for people to purchase or invest or whatnot.

And I don't necessarily believe in that model because like I said, in any other industry in the world, we would never expect somebody to work for free. So why do we expect that in the online coaching and course creator space? And I'm not saying, again, I get that starting a business and all of that requires resources and time and money, and that there also is an imbalance in the way things are priced.

Like, we went through this, like, low ticket, then we went through this, like, high ticket, and now we're trying to, like, the dust is sort of settling there. But, again, we all have a responsibility here and discernment in what we invest [00:25:00] in. But the expectation that someone should just give, give, give, give, give for free.

Again, we go back to Treat others how we want to be treated. I, I would never want to be in a relationship with somebody who just wanted to take, take, take, take, take and offer nothing sort of in return or meet me somewhere in the middle in that partnership or that relationship. I also don't want to be in a relationship with somebody who doesn't see the value in what I bring to the table.

only sees their, their, the value that they quote unquote think that they're getting or receiving as a result of that. To me, that's a very one sided relationship. It's like, this is all I've gotten from you, or this is the only value that I received, or this is all that I accessed from you. That feels very one sided and is not sort of a mutually respected relationship in my opinion.

Um, but that's the work that I've done on myself to be able to see that, to be able to go, um, I require a mutual respect in a relationship and just because you're [00:26:00] paying me quote unquote money doesn't mean that I'm not providing value in return value again in my degrees, in my qualifications, in my experiences.

It's not just what value you're getting in that very moment. Again, we pay lawyers and doctors a fee. For the, not, not necessarily for the work they've done in that moment with you, like they helped you heal an eye rash and gave you some cream and wrote a prescription. No, they went to school for a very, very long time to be qualified as a doctor or a lawyer.

Similarly, we pay pilots what we pay pilots because they're flying us through the air and keeping us alive in that transportation. Like, it requires qualifications. But we're not, and so we're paying them and compensating them in relation to that and what's required for them to do the job that they're doing.

The same is true for me, my clients, who are equally coming [00:27:00] to the table with, you know, This level of experience and therefore the value that's being provided. Isn't just in the exchange, it's in all of the things that they bring and hold, right. And all of the work, I think that my clients do on themselves and the inner work and all those sorts of things is all part of the value.

And I think we need to start to, the first place we need to start to do this work is on self and really getting curious about where am I, one, operating in separatism from the other person that I'm in relationship with, whether that's your personal relationships, or that is your business relationships.

investment relationships, whatever it might be, like, where am I in opposition to them? Where am I feeling like this is an us versus them, me versus you? And that can show up in, like I said, this is all I got from you. That is a very us versus them mentality, and that 100 percent diminishes the [00:28:00] value of that other person instantly in that statement, right?

So where are you in opposition to the other person, and where are you not showing up in love and compassion and a recognition that we are all connected, we are all one, and that if my brothers and sisters aren't thriving, then I'm not thriving. for listening. Right? That's the mentality that needs to really shift in the business space, specifically in the online coaching consultant space, but in the business space in general, right?

We see this in corporate. You know, a CEO has taken a huge chunk of money and then their employees are getting paid peanuts, right? And yet, they wouldn't have a company if they didn't have their employees. or the employees are treated not that well and they're given two weeks of holidays, right? By law, quote unquote, you give two to three weeks of holidays, but do you have to follow that?

You know, so what, what would be really [00:29:00] beautiful is like, yeah, cool. That's the law, but I'm going to give you six weeks. because I value you or I'm going to pay you more and I'm going to pay myself less because I value you. This is coming from more of an individualistic mindset of me, me, me, me, me hoarding wealth.

It's all mine. Give me, give me, give me scarcity to a collective. We all work together in order for the greater good of the whole. That, to me, is what the work needs to happen, because right now the imbalance, in my opinion, when it comes to value is that business owners are being required to provide so much value for free, and we're seeing, They sort of ripple out into bigger brands.

I just read a post today about a beautiful musician who has close to a million followers. And he basically was like, I'm moving off the app. I'm moving off of Instagram because I have just [00:30:00] noticed my views are going down and down and down and down. And my content isn't being shown to my beautiful community that I've cultivated here.

And he showed message after message, after message from people in his community going, Oh, I had no idea you were doing a live show here. I didn't even know there was tickets on sale. Like they weren't even getting the notification and we're seeing this across the board. I saw it with another big brand recently as well, who's in the holistic, um, women's health space.

And she's like, my stuff's not being shown. Well, it's probably not being shown for two reasons being shadow banned or whatever, because it's helping women. have sovereignty over their health and wellness. And of course there's huge implications with that. I'm not going to go down those rabbit holes because of what that sort of starts to challenge and change.

So what I'm wanting to highlight here is, is that when we cultivate that inner relationship with ourselves, we can, We can therefore, from a place of love and compassion and oneness and wholeness, then we can start to have those relationships with other and [00:31:00] create the ripple effect. And if there's something in your reality right now that you don't like or you don't agree with, and I'm not saying from a judgmental place, again, that's us versus them.

They're doing it wrong. Oh my gosh, they're, they suck. No, that's judgment. When and then therefore looking at the judgment within yourself going, Oh, wow, I'm really judging. It's I'm not in alignment with how things are. And here's why I'm not in alignment with it, which I've just shared with you here today of value, right?

It's not judgment towards anybody, anybody particular. It's I'm in this. Right? I've put myself in this with y'all to come up with a solution and I'm going to be doing that and implementing that across my business because it's not sustainable. And in 2023, I took a break. I said, I'm going to post one to four times a month on social because this is kind of ridiculous.

Like I've become a content factory and I'm, I don't want to be, [00:32:00] right? The biggest part of why I do this work is because I want to create an impact. I am here to innovate and improve and to optimize. I'm here to help soulful entrepreneurs, conscious leaders, get their work in the hands of more people and create the ripple effect that they want to create in the world.

And I'm here to also help people live a sovereign, authentic, uh, Autonomous Life, that they get to live their freaking life and love it and that they're not bound by the systems and the structures that have been created around us, that they know they have the choice to change. That is what I'm here to do.

And in my opinion, the way forward in doing that is, is that we really have to first love ourselves more than anything, right? Come back to like, where am I? not congruent with this sort of mentality of the whole. If I'm treating somebody else disrespectfully, um, consciously or unconsciously, then therefore I'm impacting the whole.

If I'm asking somebody to turn [00:33:00] themselves inside out, to give me what I want because I'm paying you, we're not thriving as a, as a unit. Again, it's that top down mentality. It's that. You know, victim mindset in a lot of ways, but it's separatism, right? It's separatism. And that's why you see companies now, CEOs taking a huge pay cut and paying their employees more because they understand that they understand that in order to thrive as a business, the business unit needs to thrive.

And that's everybody. That's everybody at every level they need to be thriving. And if they can't pay their basic bills, if they're struggling to survive, if they can't even invest in getting a home, then if these are things that they want, right, if there's not proper care for their children, only these sorts of things impacts them and them doing a really phenomenal job.

And [00:34:00] so. It's starting to recognize that there isn't an us versus them. There isn't a me versus you. And even using that and seeing that in your language, where are you seeing that? Right? You told me you would do this for me, or this is exactly why I hired you. That is very, very us versus them language. And it puts somebody in defense because there's instantly an opposition.

It's like, I thought we were a team. I thought we were doing this together. Right? And so. My solution, I think, at the end of this is for you to contemplate. In your own life, in your own reality, where you're still in opposition with other people, and where that is being projected or portrayed out into the world, uh, whether that's on your team members, whether that's on yourself, uh, whether that's, on people that you've invested in, where are you casting blame onto them?

And where are you expecting them to [00:35:00] be what you need them to be in order to get what you want in life? Because mentors, coaches, people that you hire, they're not responsible for your success. They're not responsible for your success. what you create, you are a hundred percent responsible for that. And if you're putting the responsibility on them to get you the results, to get you the success, to change your reality for you, then that's a really good place to start because that's feeding the idea of take, take, take.

I need you to produce all this stuff for free. I'm just going to opt into all the free things. I'm going to do all the free things. I'm going to just take, take, take, take, take, and. not necessarily invest. And I'm not saying everybody has to invest in something. I'm not saying that, but what I am saying, there is a, there is an imbalance, right?

Lots of creators are doing things for free. And [00:36:00] if they actually boiled it down and looked at their financials and what they're earning versus, Not necessarily even what their expenses are, because this is one thing I do at year end. I look at my financials. So what did I earn? What are the expenses? And I'm always looking at expenses going, what can I improve?

What can I streamline? What can I make more efficient? Which is something I'm working at right now. And then it's also like, what's the time and energy expenditure that's going out? Right. In terms of like client delivery, content creation, all these things that I don't think that we actually put a value on, which is our time.

And time, in my opinion, is the most valuable asset. And we don't know when our time here will end. We have no idea. And so, In order to live a really beautiful life, in my opinion, is to enjoy the time that we do have on this planet. And [00:37:00] if we're working ourselves to the bone and running ourselves into the ground and we're not thriving, then that to me isn't living.

So I'm going to leave it there because I could probably talk so much more about this, but I just wanted to highlight this because if you're feeling like you're running yourself into the ground and you've, you know, you're putting so much effort into what you do and you don't really feel like you're being compensated the way that you want to be and you're in the online coaching space and maybe, maybe you're not, then this is an invitation to get really curious about what you value and maybe what aren't you valuing and where you might feel like there is a value leak, right?

If you're putting out so much time, is that actually true that you have to do it that way in order to create the reality that you want to create? Does it mean that you have to post five or seven times a week? A week on social doesn't mean you have to be in your stories. Does it mean you have to DM 40 people a day?

These are things that come to me on sales [00:38:00] calls, by the way. Like people saying, I had a coach tell me I had to post, I had to do 50 reach outs in my DMs a daily. What? Like my mind just blows up because I'm just like, wowzers. Like I'm not, I don't want to spend my time like that in the DMs. Build, building relationships is important to me, but I'm not going to rely on having to do 40 DMs a day.

That's 40 conversations, right? So can you imagine the 40 conversations and the intention that I think is required to actually build relationship, right? There has to be some intention. It's, it can't just be autopilot ticking things off a to do list. There has to be some intention behind that. And so just to do 40 reachouts, if it like, for what's the point, you know, I'm always asking those questions, like, but why, what's the point.

And again, not from a judgmental or rebellious, or I don't want to do that perspective. I'm looking at it going, does this align with me? Does this align with my values and what it is I'm wanting to create? [00:39:00] And then I'm looking at things going, we're always told that this is how it needs to be, but is that actually true?

And can I find proof anywhere else in the world that Others are doing it differently, which I've just highlighted that I've never ever just offered my work for free in order to attract clients in the offline world. And yet we see a lot of that in the online world. So there's proof right there, right?

Money, wins, screenshots, all those sorts of things. We never did that in the offline world and yet we do it in the online world. So there's proof right there. But as Einstein always says, right, we can't change. what we want to change coming from the same perspective. And so you have to get really bloody curious and question all the time.

And what's going to happen in your questioning. And I'm going to be really truthful here is people are going to say to you, well, that's just the way that it is, or that's just how it has to be [00:40:00] done. Or what do you expect? Or what did you expect? Right? These are comments that people will say to you when you're starting to challenge the way through.

Things have always been done and what is required is some really bold, courageous steps in going. That's cool. And that's your belief. But I wholeheartedly believe in a different way and I'm going to create that. And I'm going to leave you with that. Because I've been talking and talking, but I'd love to hear from you in the DMS.

If you want to reach out and continue this conversation with me, I'd love to hear from you over on the DMS at Creatively Owned. And I hope you have a great day. 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. [00:41:00] you