March 25, 2025 • 17 mins
In this fiery breakdown, I unpack why the show Paradise blew it in the final episode—and draw a sharp, necessary parallel to how too many women are showing up in business: as the rando killer. You can’t expect people to care about your offer, your voice, or your leadership if you’ve been hiding behind surface-level content and calling it strategy. If you’re tired of doing “all the right things” and still not being seen, this episode will challenge you to go deeper, get visible, and lead with clarity. Spoiler alert: it starts with knowing who the hell you are.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast,
where we question the sacredtruths of the online business
space and the reverence withwhich they're held.
I'm your host, sarah Khanspeaker, strategic consultant
and BS busting badass.
Join me each week as wechallenge the norms, trends and
overall bullshit status quo ofentrepreneurship to uncover what
it really takes to build thebusiness that you want to build
(00:23):
in a way that honors you, yourlife and your vision for what's
possible, and maybe piss off afew gurus along the way.
So if you're ready to commitbusiness blasphemy, let's do it.
Hello, hello, blasphemers.
All right, look, I justfinished watching Paradise.
I don't know if you've seen ityet or if you plan to see it.
(00:43):
So, yes, there are going to besome spoilers here.
I don't want to tell you not tolisten to this episode,
obviously, but if you're intenton starting or you haven't
finished, then maybe just kindof pause this episode, save it,
come back to it later, but ifyou're still here, all right,
paradise.
Paradise is a show that we werewatching on Disney+ Fantastic
(01:03):
show.
Seven solid episodes, strongcharacter development, layers
upon layers of tension andsuspense, real emotional
investment.
And then episode eight, episodeeight.
Episode eight was a total.
What the fuck we finally getthe reveal of the killer who
(01:27):
offed the president in episodeone, and guess who?
It is A total fucking stranger,what I like to call the rando
killer, a character with threelines five episodes ago or
something like that.
Like no character development,no emotional stakes.
Everyone wants to call this amassive twist.
Oh my God, didn't see it coming.
Yeah, because it wasn't a twist, it was a cop out.
(01:48):
It was lazy storytelling thatmade the whole journey, the
whole journey of investment,feel super empty.
There was no emotional payoffand honestly, I'm kind of mad.
Can you tell, because I wastedeight hours watching this show.
Like I don't have that kind oftime.
How are you going to get usinvested in these incredible
characters like Sinatra, who hada fantastic backstory right,
(02:13):
that really helps you see howsomeone can start out with super
good intentions, even ifthey're rooted in fear, and
evolve into this monster becauseof that fear.
And you've got Collins, theSecret Service guy who lost his
wife in this massive tragedy andhas to contend with, like, his
guilt and all of this stuff, andhe still did his job even
though he resented the guy whohe was born to protect.
(02:33):
And then you've got Billy Pace,who was a really interesting
character, a great backstory,and then, you know, he was
almost redeemed before he waskilled by another character who,
polly Pocket Jane right, theSecret Service lady, who was
super innocent and sweet and wethought she was, but she ended
up being this cold-bloodedsociopath who was super obsessed
with Nintendo Wii, which youknow, kind of super weird, but
(02:55):
I've also played the Wii andit's actually not that weird, I
guess.
But like there were so manycharacters that we invested in,
there was so much work that wentinto making us connect to these
characters and those are justthe four that I mentioned off
the top right.
Like there were othercharacters that had way more
screen time, more lines and justfelt like more of a natural fit
to the story and we could havebeen taken in so many directions
(03:16):
with this show.
That could have been absolutelyamazing, but instead the killer
was the fucking librarian, likesome super rando who had zero
backstory until episode eightwhere it was rushed Like,
honestly, it didn't give usenough of an emotional
connection.
I mean, on the face of it, yeah, if I look back I can connect
the dots and go.
Yeah, I can see how he mighthave been driven to kill the
(03:36):
president.
If I jumped through enoughmental hoops and do enough
mental gymnastics, you give mesome ridiculous montage of a
pseudo friendship that he madeat work and I'm supposed to
believe that that was enough todrive him to kill multiple
people to get access to thepresident, I don't know.
Like there was no, no build-up,he was an absolute rando
(03:56):
character.
And even how he got into thewhite house, like I get the
cameras, like which is there wasso much, there was so much.
And the cheese fries ladyyou're gonna throw to throw that
at us.
Like giving her three stupidlines of conversation with one
of the main characters andsuddenly that makes her a viable
whodunit.
Like I get it.
I am probably disproportionatelyangry about this, but I am
(04:17):
really annoyed.
I'm so annoyed in fact I made aTikTok about it.
I don't really ever go onTikTok barely it's an
afterthought, but that's howannoyed I was.
And here's where we are and I'msorry, I'm not.
Am I sorry?
I'm not sorry.
This is where we are.
And if you're still here, yes,there are parallels to business
and I think this is why I'm soannoyed.
But I had to share myfrustration first so that I
(04:39):
could set the context, becausethere are so few shows these
days that get it right, likethere are so many shows that
have that emotional payoff atthe end.
You invest in these charactersSeverance is actually a really
good example of this, but I'mnot going to get into that.
But, like there's build up, youinvest in these characters, you
go on their journey, you feelfor them, you relate to them and
(05:01):
then there's an actualemotional payoff for all of that
investment.
And it reminds me of somethingI see pretty constantly in the
online business space.
It's what I call the randokiller in business.
So let me set the stage for you.
Okay, you post consistently, andwhen I say consistent, I don't
mean that there is a specificnumber that equals consistency.
(05:22):
Consistency means showing up inwhatever way you are able to do
that.
Your audience can rely on youto show up Once a week, five
times a week, once a month, itdoesn't matter.
But they know you're going tobe there consistently.
But a lot of the time,consistency isn't the issue.
What you're posting is theissue.
You're posting memes, funnyreels, sharing things about your
(05:45):
life, but it's always surfacelevel stuff like here's where
I'm going today, here's what I'mdoing today highlight reel
stuff, saying you never post fun, random things.
People need to see that side ofyour personality, but what
(06:06):
happens is you tend to weighthat much more heavily because
it's easier, right, it allowsyou to play safe.
So you recycle quotes, yourecycle tips, you post surface
level content and what you'rehoping is that will get people
to see how brilliant you are,how relatable you are, how
wonderful you are and invest inyou.
And that's all it's going totake.
And I get it.
You're brilliant, you havecredentials, you have
credibility, you've built abusiness.
People know that, but you neverwant to go deeper.
(06:27):
You like to hide behind yourclients, your resume, your quiet
season.
You keep all the juicy stuffhidden and then one day you drop
your big announcement your newoffer, your new program, your
event, your mastermind, whateverit is, and you launch it.
And then you're shocked when itlands with crickets or worse,
confusion or a handful of politelikes, but overall, little to
no buyers.
(06:47):
It's because you made the exactsame move as Paradise.
You are now officially therando killer.
You think, and we are led tobelieve, that all of this
surface level nonsense is what'smaking you relatable.
That volume somehow equalsvalue.
But the truth is you've builtzero real connection.
You haven't showed up withpresence.
Showed up, shown up.
You haven't shown up withpresence.
(07:07):
Right Consistency doesn't equalpresence.
You didn't give people a reasonto care.
You tried to be the maincharacter in a story you never
claimed.
Now, I'm not saying you have tospill all your dirty secrets
online or be super inappropriateor prance around in your
underwear.
I'm not talking about all ofthat.
Your dirty laundry, your47-part tell-all on Instagram.
(07:28):
That's not what's necessary.
That's not what I'm asking youto do.
By any stretch of theimagination, please don't.
But you do have to tell us whywe should give a shit about what
you do, because we don't dothat part, do we?
We've been conditioned tobelieve that we don't really
have to, and this is especiallytrue for multi-talented,
multi-faceted women who are alsoincredibly capable and can do a
(07:49):
lot of things.
Too many of us have beentrained to believe that it's
better to be excellent, butbehind the scenes, invisible, to
keep your head down, produceresults, be dependable, be low
maintenance and believe thatyour work will speak for itself.
So just stay humble, just staythe course.
I mean it kind of worked, Iguess right, like you had a good
job, a good career, although ifyou left your job because you
(08:10):
weren't getting the recognitionor opportunities or support that
you deserved and you became anentrepreneur, I'm going to say
it probably didn't work.
In fact, because now you'retrying to build something of
your own, you're trying to lead,whereas in corporate, you were
a silent leader leading frombehind.
But the kind of leadership thatyou want to build now and that
you deserve to build now demandsvisibility.
It demands clarity, it demandspeople knowing exactly who you
(08:33):
are, what you stand for and whyyour voice matters.
If you want people to buy fromyou, if you want people to
follow you, if you want peopleto refer you, you need to stop
fading into the background andwaiting for your work to speak
for itself or for people to justsee that what you're saying
makes sense, for them to connectthe dots.
Look, I'm talking to myself too, right?
(08:53):
Don't get me wrong.
This is not about just beingloud and being out there and
being intentionallycontroversial or whatever.
It's about being truly known,about being present and clear
and being someone your audiencecan track over time, like they
can track your journey, becausethat's how you build trust.
That's how momentum happens.
You can't just drop intopeople's lives with a high
(09:16):
ticket offer or really any offerand expect them to throw money
at you because you finallyworked up the nerve to sell
something.
You can't make an ask withoutpeople understanding why the ask
is important.
If your audience doesn't have astory to attach you to, they're
going to scroll past.
Not because they don't like youOf course they like you but
because you've never actuallyasked them or told them why they
(09:38):
should care.
Now I hear you.
What do you mean, sarah?
How do I ask them to care?
What story am I supposed to betelling?
Well, here are a few places tostart.
Why are you here?
What made you turn into anentrepreneur?
What made you turn toentrepreneurship?
What made you want to take thisleap?
What is your hill?
What do you want to be thisleap?
(10:03):
What is your hill?
What do you want to beremembered for?
Who are you doing this for?
What's your mission?
What are your values?
What kind of impact do you wantto make and why?
That's the big question why?
Why are you here?
You have to get clear on that.
Everybody talks about that.
I get it.
Most of you probably dounderstand what your why is Like
.
Why do you get out of bed everyday to do this?
I remember years ago, when Iwanted to be a speaker, I used
to think that I had to have somerags to riches story or some
horrible trauma that I overcamethat made me stand out or that
(10:24):
made me different from everybodyelse.
And when I finally startedgetting traction as a speaker,
yeah, my why was clear, but itwas really just for sharing my
own story, my own experience aswho I was right, helping people
see how it shaped how I becamewho I am and why I do what I do,
and doing it with my own flair.
That's when I started to getclients and opportunities.
(10:46):
And I mean I spent too manyyears thinking that my three
degrees and my 20 certificationsand my 25 years of experience
were the thing that peopleactually gave a shit about and
that would make them say, oh, Iwant to work with her because
she's qualified.
Like, yeah, people definitelyappreciate the credentials and
the credibility, but they relateto the story, they relate to my
journey, they relate to why Iam who I am, how I got to this
(11:08):
point.
They understand what I wentthrough and the story that I was
trying to tell them and, yeah,it was hard, especially for
someone who was conditioned,raised, socialized, to quote
unquote not talk about yourbusiness outside the house.
There is absolutely a right wayto do it that feels right for
you, I promise, and you have tofind it.
And the best stories don'tsurprise you with sudden
(11:31):
discovery.
They earn their arc right.
Your audience has been with youevery step of the way.
They've watched you shift andtransform and lead and when a
big moment hits, they feel it intheir bones.
They're like, yeah, absolutely,I can see why she is who she is
.
I can understand why she's theone I need to work with.
That's the kind of presence youneed to build in your business,
not the viral reel or the onehit offer, not the cartoon
(11:53):
villain, right?
The cartoon villain being theperson who just intentionally
posts controversial shit to getlikes and comments or whatever.
It's about being consistentwith the part of you that is
really you.
So your why is still surfacelevel, but it's a good place to
start.
But you need to go deeper thanthat.
(12:13):
You need a strong narrative, apattern, a presence that's been
built and reinforced with themajority of your posts.
The issue is not that you don'thave anything to say.
You absolutely do, but you'rewaiting for it to be perfect
(12:33):
before you say it.
You're waiting until you have apolished offer or a polished
story or a complete framework orperfect branding before you
stand up and take space and,honestly, by then, the moment's
over.
It's past.
Yes, strategic visibilityabsolute power move.
Showing up before you feelready.
Absolute power move.
Being known before you launchpower move, treating your
(12:54):
presence like a leadership assetand not a nice to have power
move.
But you got to go deeper thanthe why.
Because if you're sitting thereand you're thinking, okay, I
have all of those things and Ineed to now maybe hire a
marketing strategist, pleasedon't, do not hire a marketing
strategist.
A marketing strategist's job isto develop data driven plans,
(13:15):
right, and those plans are meantto attract, engage and convert
ideal customers through targetedchannels and targeted campaigns
.
If you've hired a marketingstrategist, by the way, they're
not doing any of that.
They're not a marketingstrategist.
And PS, social media, not amarketing strategy.
Social media is a tool, okay,social media I'm going to say it
again is not a marketingstrategy.
(13:36):
If that is what somebody ispeddling, they're not a
strategist, but I digress.
If you're thinking, okay, thenmaybe what I need is not a
marketing strategist, maybe Ineed a branding professional.
No, you don't need a brandingprofessional.
A branding professional's jobdefine the shapes and the
visuals and the verbals and theemotional identity of your brand
to make it recognizable,consistent and aligned with its
(13:57):
values.
But you have to have all ofthose things in the first place,
right.
First, you need to know whatyour emotional identity is, or
at least the story behind it.
You have to understand the whoand the why before a branding
person can come in.
Yeah, like they're going tohelp you pull it all together
and make it a cohesive story,but they're not going to develop
it for you.
So you're like okay, sarah,well, where do we start?
(14:19):
Well, you have to have clarityon your story.
Yeah, absolutely.
But in order to have clarity onyour story, the very first thing
you need to get clear on is whoyou are, your identity, because
here's something that a lot ofpeople don't want to admit.
Most of us in theentrepreneurial business space
have very, very similar whys.
I've been doing this a longtime.
I've asked a lot of people whattheir why is, and it's very
(14:42):
similar to everybody else's.
They have very similar storiesfrom being in corporate or in
the traditional workplace.
They have very similar storiesto being stay-at-home moms.
They have very similar missions.
They have very similar reasonsfor wanting to be here.
So, yeah, your why is important, your story is important, and
if that is all you take to amarketing professional or a
(15:02):
branding person or whateverstoryteller, whatever, you're
still going to sound likeeveryone else, even with a
polished story.
So the key is to get clear onyour identity.
You may be thinking I know whoI am, sarah.
That's not what I'm talkingabout.
If you're an ambitious woman byany stretch of the imagination,
a high-achieving woman, amultifaceted, multi-talented
woman, if you're a woman who'sbeen in service for a long time,
(15:22):
if you're a woman who has aservice heart, if you're a woman
of color, you probably don'thave a connection to your true
identity, like who you are atyour absolute core, the essence
of who you are.
You've probably had inklings,but everything that we are
socialized and conditioned tobelieve and do is orchestrated
(15:43):
to keep her quiet.
But she is at the absolute rootof everything and this is the
work that very, very few peoplewant to do, because they don't
realize that it's got to be done, and that's the work I help
support.
Identity work is about who youare underneath the credentials,
the accolades, the titles, thejobs, the experience, the
(16:04):
conditioning, everything,everything the world told you
that you had to be, and becausethat is the most aligned work
you can do, it is the best placeto root any strategy, to anchor
strategy, storytelling,branding, marketing, anything.
Now, as an aside, if you'recurious to learn more, hit the
show notes book a call, or justhead to the show notes and send
(16:26):
me a text message.
There's a link right at thevery top.
It goes direct to my phone.
Send me a text, we can chatthere.
But the bottom line is youcannot be the hero if no one
knows who the fuck you are andwhy they should care.
And if that feels like a callout, yeah, it is, but it's with
love.
I know you're not waiting onpermission, you don't need
permission, but you're waitinguntil everything is perfect
(16:48):
because you think that's whatpeople are waiting for.
They're not and it's costingyou power, real power.
So stop being the rando killerin your business.
Let's get really, really clearon who you are and why people
should care and if you're readyto commit to success without the
BS.
You know where to find me.
I'll see you next week.
That's it for this week.
(17:08):
Thanks for listening to theBusiness Blasphemy Podcast.
We'll be back next week with anew episode, but in the meantime
, help a sister out bysubscribing and if you're
feeling extra sassy rating thispodcast, and don't forget to
share the podcast with othershead over to
businessblasphemypodcastcom toconnect with us and learn more.
Thanks for listening andremember you can have success
without the BS.
Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast,
where we question the sacredtruths of the online business
space and the reverence withwhich they're held.
I'm your host, sarah Khanspeaker, strategic consultant
and BS busting badass.
Join me each week as wechallenge the norms, trends and
overall bullshit status quo ofentrepreneurship to uncover what
it really takes to build thebusiness that you want to build
(00:23):
in a way that honors you, yourlife and your vision for what's
possible, and maybe piss off afew gurus along the way.
So if you're ready to commitbusiness blasphemy, let's do it.
Hello, hello, blasphemers.
All right, look, I justfinished watching Paradise.
I don't know if you've seen ityet or if you plan to see it.
(00:43):
So, yes, there are going to besome spoilers here.
I don't want to tell you not tolisten to this episode,
obviously, but if you're intenton starting or you haven't
finished, then maybe just kindof pause this episode, save it,
come back to it later, but ifyou're still here, all right,
paradise.
Paradise is a show that we werewatching on Disney+ Fantastic
(01:03):
show.
Seven solid episodes, strongcharacter development, layers
upon layers of tension andsuspense, real emotional
investment.
And then episode eight, episodeeight.
Episode eight was a total.
What the fuck we finally getthe reveal of the killer who
(01:27):
offed the president in episodeone, and guess who?
It is A total fucking stranger,what I like to call the rando
killer, a character with threelines five episodes ago or
something like that.
Like no character development,no emotional stakes.
Everyone wants to call this amassive twist.
Oh my God, didn't see it coming.
Yeah, because it wasn't a twist, it was a cop out.
(01:48):
It was lazy storytelling thatmade the whole journey, the
whole journey of investment,feel super empty.
There was no emotional payoffand honestly, I'm kind of mad.
Can you tell, because I wastedeight hours watching this show.
Like I don't have that kind oftime.
How are you going to get usinvested in these incredible
characters like Sinatra, who hada fantastic backstory right,
(02:13):
that really helps you see howsomeone can start out with super
good intentions, even ifthey're rooted in fear, and
evolve into this monster becauseof that fear.
And you've got Collins, theSecret Service guy who lost his
wife in this massive tragedy andhas to contend with, like, his
guilt and all of this stuff, andhe still did his job even
though he resented the guy whohe was born to protect.
(02:33):
And then you've got Billy Pace,who was a really interesting
character, a great backstory,and then, you know, he was
almost redeemed before he waskilled by another character who,
polly Pocket Jane right, theSecret Service lady, who was
super innocent and sweet and wethought she was, but she ended
up being this cold-bloodedsociopath who was super obsessed
with Nintendo Wii, which youknow, kind of super weird, but
(02:55):
I've also played the Wii andit's actually not that weird, I
guess.
But like there were so manycharacters that we invested in,
there was so much work that wentinto making us connect to these
characters and those are justthe four that I mentioned off
the top right.
Like there were othercharacters that had way more
screen time, more lines and justfelt like more of a natural fit
to the story and we could havebeen taken in so many directions
(03:16):
with this show.
That could have been absolutelyamazing, but instead the killer
was the fucking librarian, likesome super rando who had zero
backstory until episode eightwhere it was rushed Like,
honestly, it didn't give usenough of an emotional
connection.
I mean, on the face of it, yeah, if I look back I can connect
the dots and go.
Yeah, I can see how he mighthave been driven to kill the
(03:36):
president.
If I jumped through enoughmental hoops and do enough
mental gymnastics, you give mesome ridiculous montage of a
pseudo friendship that he madeat work and I'm supposed to
believe that that was enough todrive him to kill multiple
people to get access to thepresident, I don't know.
Like there was no, no build-up,he was an absolute rando
(03:56):
character.
And even how he got into thewhite house, like I get the
cameras, like which is there wasso much, there was so much.
And the cheese fries ladyyou're gonna throw to throw that
at us.
Like giving her three stupidlines of conversation with one
of the main characters andsuddenly that makes her a viable
whodunit.
Like I get it.
I am probably disproportionatelyangry about this, but I am
(04:17):
really annoyed.
I'm so annoyed in fact I made aTikTok about it.
I don't really ever go onTikTok barely it's an
afterthought, but that's howannoyed I was.
And here's where we are and I'msorry, I'm not.
Am I sorry?
I'm not sorry.
This is where we are.
And if you're still here, yes,there are parallels to business
and I think this is why I'm soannoyed.
But I had to share myfrustration first so that I
(04:39):
could set the context, becausethere are so few shows these
days that get it right, likethere are so many shows that
have that emotional payoff atthe end.
You invest in these charactersSeverance is actually a really
good example of this, but I'mnot going to get into that.
But, like there's build up, youinvest in these characters, you
go on their journey, you feelfor them, you relate to them and
(05:01):
then there's an actualemotional payoff for all of that
investment.
And it reminds me of somethingI see pretty constantly in the
online business space.
It's what I call the randokiller in business.
So let me set the stage for you.
Okay, you post consistently, andwhen I say consistent, I don't
mean that there is a specificnumber that equals consistency.
(05:22):
Consistency means showing up inwhatever way you are able to do
that.
Your audience can rely on youto show up Once a week, five
times a week, once a month, itdoesn't matter.
But they know you're going tobe there consistently.
But a lot of the time,consistency isn't the issue.
What you're posting is theissue.
You're posting memes, funnyreels, sharing things about your
(05:45):
life, but it's always surfacelevel stuff like here's where
I'm going today, here's what I'mdoing today highlight reel
stuff, saying you never post fun, random things.
People need to see that side ofyour personality, but what
(06:06):
happens is you tend to weighthat much more heavily because
it's easier, right, it allowsyou to play safe.
So you recycle quotes, yourecycle tips, you post surface
level content and what you'rehoping is that will get people
to see how brilliant you are,how relatable you are, how
wonderful you are and invest inyou.
And that's all it's going totake.
And I get it.
You're brilliant, you havecredentials, you have
credibility, you've built abusiness.
People know that, but you neverwant to go deeper.
(06:27):
You like to hide behind yourclients, your resume, your quiet
season.
You keep all the juicy stuffhidden and then one day you drop
your big announcement your newoffer, your new program, your
event, your mastermind, whateverit is, and you launch it.
And then you're shocked when itlands with crickets or worse,
confusion or a handful of politelikes, but overall, little to
no buyers.
(06:47):
It's because you made the exactsame move as Paradise.
You are now officially therando killer.
You think, and we are led tobelieve, that all of this
surface level nonsense is what'smaking you relatable.
That volume somehow equalsvalue.
But the truth is you've builtzero real connection.
You haven't showed up withpresence.
Showed up, shown up.
You haven't shown up withpresence.
(07:07):
Right Consistency doesn't equalpresence.
You didn't give people a reasonto care.
You tried to be the maincharacter in a story you never
claimed.
Now, I'm not saying you have tospill all your dirty secrets
online or be super inappropriateor prance around in your
underwear.
I'm not talking about all ofthat.
Your dirty laundry, your47-part tell-all on Instagram.
(07:28):
That's not what's necessary.
That's not what I'm asking youto do.
By any stretch of theimagination, please don't.
But you do have to tell us whywe should give a shit about what
you do, because we don't dothat part, do we?
We've been conditioned tobelieve that we don't really
have to, and this is especiallytrue for multi-talented,
multi-faceted women who are alsoincredibly capable and can do a
(07:49):
lot of things.
Too many of us have beentrained to believe that it's
better to be excellent, butbehind the scenes, invisible, to
keep your head down, produceresults, be dependable, be low
maintenance and believe thatyour work will speak for itself.
So just stay humble, just staythe course.
I mean it kind of worked, Iguess right, like you had a good
job, a good career, although ifyou left your job because you
(08:10):
weren't getting the recognitionor opportunities or support that
you deserved and you became anentrepreneur, I'm going to say
it probably didn't work.
In fact, because now you'retrying to build something of
your own, you're trying to lead,whereas in corporate, you were
a silent leader leading frombehind.
But the kind of leadership thatyou want to build now and that
you deserve to build now demandsvisibility.
It demands clarity, it demandspeople knowing exactly who you
(08:33):
are, what you stand for and whyyour voice matters.
If you want people to buy fromyou, if you want people to
follow you, if you want peopleto refer you, you need to stop
fading into the background andwaiting for your work to speak
for itself or for people to justsee that what you're saying
makes sense, for them to connectthe dots.
Look, I'm talking to myself too, right?
(08:53):
Don't get me wrong.
This is not about just beingloud and being out there and
being intentionallycontroversial or whatever.
It's about being truly known,about being present and clear
and being someone your audiencecan track over time, like they
can track your journey, becausethat's how you build trust.
That's how momentum happens.
You can't just drop intopeople's lives with a high
(09:16):
ticket offer or really any offerand expect them to throw money
at you because you finallyworked up the nerve to sell
something.
You can't make an ask withoutpeople understanding why the ask
is important.
If your audience doesn't have astory to attach you to, they're
going to scroll past.
Not because they don't like youOf course they like you but
because you've never actuallyasked them or told them why they
(09:38):
should care.
Now I hear you.
What do you mean, sarah?
How do I ask them to care?
What story am I supposed to betelling?
Well, here are a few places tostart.
Why are you here?
What made you turn into anentrepreneur?
What made you turn toentrepreneurship?
What made you want to take thisleap?
What is your hill?
What do you want to be thisleap?
(10:03):
What is your hill?
What do you want to beremembered for?
Who are you doing this for?
What's your mission?
What are your values?
What kind of impact do you wantto make and why?
That's the big question why?
Why are you here?
You have to get clear on that.
Everybody talks about that.
I get it.
Most of you probably dounderstand what your why is Like
.
Why do you get out of bed everyday to do this?
I remember years ago, when Iwanted to be a speaker, I used
to think that I had to have somerags to riches story or some
horrible trauma that I overcamethat made me stand out or that
(10:24):
made me different from everybodyelse.
And when I finally startedgetting traction as a speaker,
yeah, my why was clear, but itwas really just for sharing my
own story, my own experience aswho I was right, helping people
see how it shaped how I becamewho I am and why I do what I do,
and doing it with my own flair.
That's when I started to getclients and opportunities.
(10:46):
And I mean I spent too manyyears thinking that my three
degrees and my 20 certificationsand my 25 years of experience
were the thing that peopleactually gave a shit about and
that would make them say, oh, Iwant to work with her because
she's qualified.
Like, yeah, people definitelyappreciate the credentials and
the credibility, but they relateto the story, they relate to my
journey, they relate to why Iam who I am, how I got to this
(11:08):
point.
They understand what I wentthrough and the story that I was
trying to tell them and, yeah,it was hard, especially for
someone who was conditioned,raised, socialized, to quote
unquote not talk about yourbusiness outside the house.
There is absolutely a right wayto do it that feels right for
you, I promise, and you have tofind it.
And the best stories don'tsurprise you with sudden
(11:31):
discovery.
They earn their arc right.
Your audience has been with youevery step of the way.
They've watched you shift andtransform and lead and when a
big moment hits, they feel it intheir bones.
They're like, yeah, absolutely,I can see why she is who she is
.
I can understand why she's theone I need to work with.
That's the kind of presence youneed to build in your business,
not the viral reel or the onehit offer, not the cartoon
(11:53):
villain, right?
The cartoon villain being theperson who just intentionally
posts controversial shit to getlikes and comments or whatever.
It's about being consistentwith the part of you that is
really you.
So your why is still surfacelevel, but it's a good place to
start.
But you need to go deeper thanthat.
(12:13):
You need a strong narrative, apattern, a presence that's been
built and reinforced with themajority of your posts.
The issue is not that you don'thave anything to say.
You absolutely do, but you'rewaiting for it to be perfect
(12:33):
before you say it.
You're waiting until you have apolished offer or a polished
story or a complete framework orperfect branding before you
stand up and take space and,honestly, by then, the moment's
over.
It's past.
Yes, strategic visibilityabsolute power move.
Showing up before you feelready.
Absolute power move.
Being known before you launchpower move, treating your
(12:54):
presence like a leadership assetand not a nice to have power
move.
But you got to go deeper thanthe why.
Because if you're sitting thereand you're thinking, okay, I
have all of those things and Ineed to now maybe hire a
marketing strategist, pleasedon't, do not hire a marketing
strategist.
A marketing strategist's job isto develop data driven plans,
(13:15):
right, and those plans are meantto attract, engage and convert
ideal customers through targetedchannels and targeted campaigns
.
If you've hired a marketingstrategist, by the way, they're
not doing any of that.
They're not a marketingstrategist.
And PS, social media, not amarketing strategy.
Social media is a tool, okay,social media I'm going to say it
again is not a marketingstrategy.
(13:36):
If that is what somebody ispeddling, they're not a
strategist, but I digress.
If you're thinking, okay, thenmaybe what I need is not a
marketing strategist, maybe Ineed a branding professional.
No, you don't need a brandingprofessional.
A branding professional's jobdefine the shapes and the
visuals and the verbals and theemotional identity of your brand
to make it recognizable,consistent and aligned with its
(13:57):
values.
But you have to have all ofthose things in the first place,
right.
First, you need to know whatyour emotional identity is, or
at least the story behind it.
You have to understand the whoand the why before a branding
person can come in.
Yeah, like they're going tohelp you pull it all together
and make it a cohesive story,but they're not going to develop
it for you.
So you're like okay, sarah,well, where do we start?
(14:19):
Well, you have to have clarityon your story.
Yeah, absolutely.
But in order to have clarity onyour story, the very first thing
you need to get clear on is whoyou are, your identity, because
here's something that a lot ofpeople don't want to admit.
Most of us in theentrepreneurial business space
have very, very similar whys.
I've been doing this a longtime.
I've asked a lot of people whattheir why is, and it's very
(14:42):
similar to everybody else's.
They have very similar storiesfrom being in corporate or in
the traditional workplace.
They have very similar storiesto being stay-at-home moms.
They have very similar missions.
They have very similar reasonsfor wanting to be here.
So, yeah, your why is important, your story is important, and
if that is all you take to amarketing professional or a
(15:02):
branding person or whateverstoryteller, whatever, you're
still going to sound likeeveryone else, even with a
polished story.
So the key is to get clear onyour identity.
You may be thinking I know whoI am, sarah.
That's not what I'm talkingabout.
If you're an ambitious woman byany stretch of the imagination,
a high-achieving woman, amultifaceted, multi-talented
woman, if you're a woman who'sbeen in service for a long time,
(15:22):
if you're a woman who has aservice heart, if you're a woman
of color, you probably don'thave a connection to your true
identity, like who you are atyour absolute core, the essence
of who you are.
You've probably had inklings,but everything that we are
socialized and conditioned tobelieve and do is orchestrated
(15:43):
to keep her quiet.
But she is at the absolute rootof everything and this is the
work that very, very few peoplewant to do, because they don't
realize that it's got to be done, and that's the work I help
support.
Identity work is about who youare underneath the credentials,
the accolades, the titles, thejobs, the experience, the
(16:04):
conditioning, everything,everything the world told you
that you had to be, and becausethat is the most aligned work
you can do, it is the best placeto root any strategy, to anchor
strategy, storytelling,branding, marketing, anything.
Now, as an aside, if you'recurious to learn more, hit the
show notes book a call, or justhead to the show notes and send
(16:26):
me a text message.
There's a link right at thevery top.
It goes direct to my phone.
Send me a text, we can chatthere.
But the bottom line is youcannot be the hero if no one
knows who the fuck you are andwhy they should care.
And if that feels like a callout, yeah, it is, but it's with
love.
I know you're not waiting onpermission, you don't need
permission, but you're waitinguntil everything is perfect
(16:48):
because you think that's whatpeople are waiting for.
They're not and it's costingyou power, real power.
So stop being the rando killerin your business.
Let's get really, really clearon who you are and why people
should care and if you're readyto commit to success without the
BS.
You know where to find me.
I'll see you next week.
That's it for this week.
(17:08):
Thanks for listening to theBusiness Blasphemy Podcast.
We'll be back next week with anew episode, but in the meantime
, help a sister out bysubscribing and if you're
feeling extra sassy rating thispodcast, and don't forget to
share the podcast with othershead over to
businessblasphemypodcastcom toconnect with us and learn more.
Thanks for listening andremember you can have success
without the BS.
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