July 8, 2025 • 22 mins
This week I dive deep into the deceptive evolution of modern marketing -- from nostalgic infomercials (my fave) to today's online schemes and shenanigans. I break down how the industry doesn't solve real problems anymore, but instead creates them in order to sell you a solution you didn't ask for.
You'll learn why business ecosystems matter more than trendy frameworks, why most "fixes" don't stick, and how to audit your OWN business with brutal clarity so you stop wasting time on bullsh*t bandaids.
If you're tired of playing whack-a-mole with your business issues, buckle up.
Love what you heard? Let’s stay connected!
Subscribe to my newsletter for bold insights on leadership, strategy, and building your legacy — straight to your inbox every week.
Follow me on LinkedIn for more no-nonsense advice on leading with power and purpose.
And if you’re ready to dive even deeper, grab a copy of my book Bite-Sized Blasphemy and ignite your inner fire to do life and business your way.
The Business Blasphemy Podcast is sponsored by Corporate Rehab® Strategic Consulting.
Mark as Played
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,welcome back.
You know I remember in the 90s Iused to spend quite a lot of
(00:43):
time really watching my Saturdaymorning cartoons, you know,
watching all of the things thatkids watched in the 90s.
But I also spent a lot of timewatching infomercials.
Now, if you are too young toknow what an infomercial is, let
me tell you.
An infomercial was basically aninformation commercial.
You know, the company would buya time slot on the television
(01:07):
and it was sometimes 30 minutes,it was sometimes 50 minutes,
but it was basically a long-asscommercial about a particular
product.
Now, what I really, reallyenjoyed about these infomercials
was how entertaining they were.
A couple of them really kind ofstick out in my mind, right,
because they were always sellinglike some really weirdly absurd
(01:27):
product that somebody hadinvented to solve a problem.
So some of the things that cometo mind there was the Ronco
Ronco was a company that did alot of these that I remember.
The Ronco food dehydrator Nowthis was a little contraption
that you could put like slicesof fruit into or small pieces of
meat and you could basicallycreate dried fruit or jerky or
(01:51):
whatever, and it was, I justremember it was like a tower.
It had different trays on itand you could plug it in and
dehydrate your stuff.
And then there was Ronco sprayon hair.
Now this was basically a can ofspray paint.
That's what it looked like andwhat came out of it was a weird
cross between spray paint andsilly string and you would spray
it like on a bald spot, and Iremember they had a guy
(02:13):
demonstrate and they would justspray it on the back of his head
and oh, look, you've got nobald spot anymore and it was
just ridiculous things like that, one of the ones that comes to
mind most clearly that I alwaysuse as an example, and I used
this when I was teachingmarketing at business school and
it was the milk spout and Idon't know if that's what it was
called, but I remember veryclearly the host of this
(02:36):
infomercial show and he alwayswore these really colorful
sweaters and he would alwaysoverly exaggerate when he was
demonstrating the need for thisproduct.
So the guy brought out a milkcarton and basically he was
demonstrating how difficult itis to open the milk carton right
, to like fold the tabs back andthen push it, and you know how
(02:59):
a milk carton works, right.
So you know what I'm talkingabout.
And he like was struggling withit so hard and then he opened
it but it splashed the milkeverywhere and it was a disaster
.
They were basically sellingthis spout, which I don't know
if you've ever watched theHunger Games or if you're a
nature enthusiast, but a spileright, it was kind of like a
spile.
A spile is like this spout thatyou can hammer into a tree and
(03:22):
it brings the water out of thetree, and spout that you can
like hammer into a tree and itlike brings the water out of the
tree and you can drink it.
It was kind of that.
You basically jabbed thisplastic spout into the top of
the milk carton and you wereable to pour the milk and voila
right.
So the entire job of theinfomercial was to sell you
these products.
But the thing was they werehaving to spend that first 20
(03:43):
minutes of a 30-minuteinfomercial explaining to you
why you had this problem thatuntil you saw the infomercial
you had never even considered.
You didn't realize you had theproblem until they told you you
had the problem.
And then, oh my gosh, well,they have the solution.
So I must absolutely buy thisproduct now.
And any Gen Xer worth theirsalt probably has a basement or
(04:06):
a garage or an attic with atleast a few boxes filled with
purchases from theseinfomercials.
Whether they were on theSaturday morning slot or like
three in the morning, it doesn'tmatter.
But I'm guaranteeing you thatmost of us probably have an
infomercial graveyard somewherein our home.
Now infomercials reallypioneered.
As far as I'm concerned, thisidea of we're going to create
(04:31):
the problem so we can sell youthe solution Now, prior to that,
marketing was really about Iknow people have this problem.
I'm going to come up with aninnovative solution.
But now marketing is all aboutlet's invent the problem first,
convince people they have it andthen sell them the solution.
But now marketing is all about.
Let's invent the problem first,convince people they have it
and then sell them the solution.
It's nuanced, but it'sdefinitely prevalent,
(04:53):
particularly in the onlinebusiness space, where every
program, every course, every,everything is designed to solve
a problem you didn't realize youhad, but this person is the
ultimate solution for it.
Their program, their product,their course, their whatever, is
the solution for this problem.
(05:14):
Now, on the face of it, that'snot really a bad thing, because
I'm sure there are a lot ofprofessionals out there who are
like you know what?
You probably don't realize thatthis is your problem because
you don't have the breadth ofexperience or the knowledge or
whatever, and in those cases,that's fine, right, they can
explain to you.
Here's why this is probably theproblem, this is likely what's
(05:34):
happening and here's thesolution that I have to help you
with that problem.
That's totally fine.
What I have an issue with iswhen it is marketed as the
solution to fix everything.
You have to be really carefulwith that.
Let me give you an example.
There are a lot of and I'm justgoing to say marketing, because
we're talking about marketing.
There are a lot of marketingprograms that are out there to
(05:56):
say that you know what thisprogram is going to solve all
your problems.
You take this program, youimplement my framework or my
method, and you're now going tohave endless leads, endless
clients.
You're going to be able to makemoney, money, money hand over
fist, and that's great.
But what a lot of people are notthinking about is how that
marketing system integrates withthe rest of their business
(06:19):
ecosystem.
There is no part of yourbusiness that stands alone.
There is no part of yourbusiness that exists in a silo,
not a single freaking one.
So you have to be very, verydiscerning when you are taking
into consideration what toinvest in, because, let's say,
(06:41):
you buy this program and you fixwhatever marketing issue you
didn't realize you had byimplementing their system into
your marketing system.
Well, how does that marketingsystem now interact with or
integrate with the rest of yourbusiness?
Does it account for the factthat there is also a sales
process, that there is a leadgeneration process, that there
is a lead generation process,that there is a delivery process
(07:03):
, that there is operations totake care of, any number of
other things that have to beconsidered in order for that one
marketing system to actually beeffective.
So we take the marketing course,we implement that system into
our business and things don'tchange overnight.
Huh, okay, maybe that marketingsystem wasn't the best, I'm
(07:24):
going to find a different one.
You invest in that same thing,you.
You pull out the marketingfunction of your business, you
fix it up and then you plug itback in and then you hope that
everything else will light up asa result of that.
It's kind of like a string ofChristmas lights.
Right, you got to find that onebad bulb that doesn't light up,
because that one, once you fixit, everything else will light
(07:45):
up.
I'm sorry, business doesn'twork that way.
Business does not work that way.
Business is not a string ofChristmas lights.
Business is, yes, absolutely.
All of the systems areintegrated, they're interactive,
they intersect with each other,so you can't just pull out one
piece without at leastconsidering everything else.
There are seven distinct areasof business that you have to
(08:08):
consider when you are looking atchanging or implementing
something in one place.
Right, you've got youroperations.
Obviously, that is the sort ofhow all of the things work
together as the infrastructureof your business.
There is your sales and yourmarketing.
You can count those as twoseparate things or you can put
them together, but they're twodistinct functions.
(08:29):
Let's be clear about that.
There is financial implicationsto take consideration of.
There is delivery of youractual product or service.
There is how you are going toinnovate on that product and
what the customer experience isgoing to be like.
There is team development andHR and all of that stuff, right,
(08:54):
and there are likesubcategories under each of
those, but those are, as ageneral kind of rule, the main
categories of your business thatall interact with each other,
that you need to think aboutwhen you're making changes in
one place or another.
And we don't really do that andthis is not me trying to blame
or shame anybody, because noteveryone has the breadth of
(09:15):
experience, the knowledge, theeducation to understand all of
this stuff.
So this is why I really reallyfeel like when you have a
problem in your business, whensomething is not working, when
you are trying to achieve a goaland it's not happening, or
you're struggling or there's abottleneck or there's just
something not working, the worstthing you can do is to listen
(09:37):
to an ad tell you that this isprobably your problem, because
they haven't looked at yourentire ecosystem.
They haven't looked ateverything from start to finish
to identify the gaps.
There are very few people whocan do that effectively and
those are people who havestrategy experience, like
hands-on actual development,like business development
(10:00):
experience, people who can auditthe entire business and not
just from a marketing lens, notjust from a sales lens, but from
the lens of all of thesefunctions are distinct but
interconnected, and let's seehow they're interacting with
each other so that we candetermine where the gap is and
what to do about it.
(10:20):
Interacting with each other, sothat we can determine where the
gap is and what to do about it,then you can go and seek out
the things that are required tofill those gaps.
You can't do it the other wayaround.
Now, my friend Nikki McKnightwas on the show a few weeks back
and she talked about and I lovethe way she described this, but
putting the hypothesis in withthe question right, and it's
this idea of I need to be onsocial media more so that I can
(10:43):
get more clients.
Well, how do you know thatsocial media is the problem or
the solution?
We don't know that, becausemaybe that doesn't work for your
particular goals, maybe thatdoesn't work for the kinds of
things you're trying to achieve.
So it's really important to goright back to the beginning and
go okay, here's what the outcomeis that we're looking for.
Here's what we're trying toactually accomplish with this
(11:05):
business.
Okay, what does that look like?
What does that look like interms of where you should be
showing up and how you should beshowing up and what your
messaging is supposed to looklike?
And then, when you actuallyengage those people, how do you
nurture them?
How do you bring them into yourecosystem?
What does your ecosystem evenlook like?
Where are you going to takethese people?
What's the journey look like?
And what does thatinfrastructure, the operational
(11:28):
piece, what does that look liketo support that journey and to
make sure that you are not theone doing everything and all the
things, and sometimes eventhings you don't need to be
doing at all?
And when they're in yourecosystem and now they want to
buy, what does the sales processlook like and what's the
infrastructure that's supportingthat?
And then what's the follow-up,care and what's happening during
delivery and what's going tohappen when they leave.
(11:49):
What are you doing aboutretention?
What are you doing about all ofthese things.
So it's never just a simplesingle solution Ever, ever, ever
.
Now I'm not saying you have tohave hundreds of thousands of
dollars to invest in everysingle aspect of your business
right off the hop, but youdefinitely need to think about
the entire ecosystem.
So look for someone who canhelp you sit down and map out
(12:09):
not in any great detail, becauseobviously you're going to
require experts in thosedifferent fields to help you
with that part but understandingat the very minimum what is the
outcome you're actually lookingfor, and not just from a
business perspective.
Don't tell me well, the outcomeI'm looking for is 10k a month,
or the outcome I'm looking foris seven figures in my business,
(12:31):
because that doesn't mean shit.
Do you know what it takes toget there?
Do you know what it takes tosustain it long term?
Does that actually jive withyour lifestyle, not the one that
you want to have one day, butthe one you currently have.
Are you supporting it with thecapacities that you have
available?
Go back and listen to theepisode on capacities if you
don't know what I'm talkingabout.
(12:51):
Do you have everything that youneed to have to get to that
outcome?
And why that particular outcome?
What is it about that number orthat outcome that is so
important?
What is that going to allow youto do?
We don't think about thesethings, because all of the
marketing says 10K months, 20kmonths, six figures, seven
(13:12):
figures, but nobody talks aboutall of the shit that comes
before that, because they'rejust trying to sell you their
program.
Before that, because they'rejust trying to sell you their
program, they don't care if itactually works for you.
It might work for the 1%, youknow, the two people who can
give them a fantastictestimonial and somehow
represent the other 98%.
(13:33):
That's not how it works.
So all of this to say be verycareful when you are investing
in things or consideringinvesting in things, because you
have to remember that the jobof marketing today is to tell
you what the problem is andconvince you that you have it so
(13:54):
that they can sell you theirsolution.
You have to be discerningenough to actually know whether
or not that is actually theproblem.
And if you can't tell, if youdon't know how to figure that
part out, don't ask the personwho's trying to sell you the
program.
Talk to someone else, talk to astrategist, talk to a business
(14:15):
development advisor, go to yourlocal chamber of commerce and
ask them for recommendations.
Advisor, go to your localchamber of commerce and ask them
for recommendations.
Figure out what the gaps arefirst, and then make the
investments you need to make.
Don't do it backwards, becausethat is why there are so many
businesses that are still stuckwhere they are today, which is
(14:37):
the same place they were fiveyears ago or six years ago or
three years ago doesn't matter,and I know this because I've
been in this space long enoughto have seen the development of
so many businesses.
It is not your fault.
Marketing is predicated on theidea of selling you a problem
(14:59):
first, so they can then sell youthe solution.
If you're wanting to do anaudit for yourself very quickly
first, before you investanywhere else, let me tell you
how to do that.
The very first thing you shoulddo sit down right, take an hour,
go somewhere quiet, get yourbeverage of choice not alcohol,
(15:23):
because you want to have a clearbrain.
As you do this, you don't wantto get emotional, and I want you
to sit down and actuallyreconnect with you.
What is it that you startedthis business for in the first
place?
Because I'll tell you a lot ofthe conversations I've been
having lately, and certainlyeven for my own self.
If you've been in business fortwo, three, four, five years,
(15:45):
odds are you are in a verydifferent place today than you
were when you started yourbusiness.
Some of it has been growth andsome of it has been evolution,
but I'm going to hazard a guessthat a lot of it, too, is just
noise All of the shoulds and thecoulds.
So sit down with yourself andremind yourself of what you
actually started this foryourself, of what you actually
(16:07):
started this for.
Was it to spend time with yourkids?
Was it to leave your full-timejob?
Was it to have extra income tohelp pay down your mortgage
faster?
Maybe take your family onholiday once or twice a year?
Was it to have financialsecurity?
You've got to sit down and askyourself that question and be
really, really honest withyourself about whether that is
(16:29):
still what you're workingtowards.
And if you're like, yeah, I'mstill working towards that,
fantastic.
And if you're like, no, I thinkI've lost my way a little bit.
That's okay, that's okay.
The machine is designed thatway.
So this is the perfectopportunity to sit down and be
like you know what.
So this is the perfectopportunity to sit down and be
like you know what I need torefocus.
(16:49):
Be very clear with yourselfabout the outcome you're trying
to achieve by having a business.
What is the purpose of thisbusiness for you?
For you, not your clients, notyour prospects.
You what is this business goingto make possible for you?
(17:12):
What is it supposed to makepossible for you?
And once you've done that, Iwant you to walk away.
I want you to walk away and letit percolate in your head.
Does it feel good?
Does it still taste good?
Because if it does now you canask yourself if that's the
outcome that that I want, whatdo I have to actually do to get
it?
And this may be where you asksomebody who has no stake in
(17:36):
your business, somebody who'snot trying to sell you anything,
somebody who just can help youunderstand business development,
can help you break down yourgoals, can help you understand
how things intersect.
Hint, hint people like me whoare not going to pitch, slap you
after a conversation.
You get someone like that tohelp you if you need or you know
(17:58):
what you can figure that outfor yourself to help.
Pop it into chat GPT.
Pop it into Claude, pop it intoGemini, whatever.
Don't take it you know 100% asgospel, but use it as a
brainstorming tool.
Do not ask it to do strategyfor you.
Please, please, don't, please,don't.
Ideally, ask a human being butthis is where you sit down and
you go okay, what do I actuallyneed to do to get to that
(18:21):
outcome, to that goal?
Reverse engineer it, figure outwhat the steps are, figure out
what the milestones are.
And then the third step look atyour day-to-day, look at your
week.
Are you actually doing any ofthose things with any great
consistency?
Because if you're not andyou're mired in busy work or
you're doing things that don'treally make sense, but somebody
(18:44):
else is doing it, or a coachtold you to do it, or I'm not
really sure why I'm supposed tobe doing this, but I've been
doing it for so long.
It's second nature.
It doesn't matter.
We're not here to judge.
Figure out whether what you'resupposed to be doing or what you
should be doing to get to youroutcome and what you actually
are doing, whether they're milesapart, whether they're just a
few feet apart, or whetherthey're working well together.
(19:06):
That is how you figure outwhere your gaps are.
Now you can go out and look forthe right supports to help you
get there.
Marketing is always going to dowhat marketing does.
We're never going to changethat.
But you, as an autonomousbusiness owner, get to be more
discerning about how you look atmarketing, how you understand
(19:29):
it and how you internalize it.
Remember that it is there tocreate the problem first, so it
can sell you the solution.
And, like I alluded to before,if you want someone to bounce
ideas off of hit me up, I'm notgoing to pitch you.
I don't have any offershappening right now.
(19:49):
I am genuinely in a place in myown life and business where I
just want to help people get towhere they're trying to go.
The way things are in the worldright now, we need to focus
particularly us women,particularly us women of color.
We need to focus on actuallygetting that financial security
(20:10):
and autonomy that most of usstarted these businesses for in
the first place, but we need todo it in a way that does not
require 80 to 90% of what wemake to be reinvested back in a
coach or in a program orwhatever.
We need the capacity to be ableto put it aside, and so my
whole ethos is let's build thesebusinesses as lean as we can,
(20:32):
because your budget is not theflex.
Hitting your goals is the flex,and doing it in a way that
doesn't require you to sell outor sacrifice your sanity or your
stability or your life rightnow.
That's what we're looking for,right?
Maybe I'll do more earlymorning shops, because they're
(20:54):
so quiet and my brain loves tocome up with things when things
are quiet.
And I got to say, when you'rewalking around the grocery store
at like seven, eight o'clock inthe morning and every song that
comes over the speakers is likea banger from your youth, you
realize how old you actually are.
That's a story for another day.
Like I always say, my friends,you can have success without the
(21:16):
BS and it's fucking time we didit.
I'll talk to you soon.
That's it for this week.
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.
(21:39):
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,welcome back.
You know I remember in the 90s Iused to spend quite a lot of
(00:43):
time really watching my Saturdaymorning cartoons, you know,
watching all of the things thatkids watched in the 90s.
But I also spent a lot of timewatching infomercials.
Now, if you are too young toknow what an infomercial is, let
me tell you.
An infomercial was basically aninformation commercial.
You know, the company would buya time slot on the television
(01:07):
and it was sometimes 30 minutes,it was sometimes 50 minutes,
but it was basically a long-asscommercial about a particular
product.
Now, what I really, reallyenjoyed about these infomercials
was how entertaining they were.
A couple of them really kind ofstick out in my mind, right,
because they were always sellinglike some really weirdly absurd
(01:27):
product that somebody hadinvented to solve a problem.
So some of the things that cometo mind there was the Ronco
Ronco was a company that did alot of these that I remember.
The Ronco food dehydrator Nowthis was a little contraption
that you could put like slicesof fruit into or small pieces of
meat and you could basicallycreate dried fruit or jerky or
(01:51):
whatever, and it was, I justremember it was like a tower.
It had different trays on itand you could plug it in and
dehydrate your stuff.
And then there was Ronco sprayon hair.
Now this was basically a can ofspray paint.
That's what it looked like andwhat came out of it was a weird
cross between spray paint andsilly string and you would spray
it like on a bald spot, and Iremember they had a guy
(02:13):
demonstrate and they would justspray it on the back of his head
and oh, look, you've got nobald spot anymore and it was
just ridiculous things like that, one of the ones that comes to
mind most clearly that I alwaysuse as an example, and I used
this when I was teachingmarketing at business school and
it was the milk spout and Idon't know if that's what it was
called, but I remember veryclearly the host of this
(02:36):
infomercial show and he alwayswore these really colorful
sweaters and he would alwaysoverly exaggerate when he was
demonstrating the need for thisproduct.
So the guy brought out a milkcarton and basically he was
demonstrating how difficult itis to open the milk carton right
, to like fold the tabs back andthen push it, and you know how
(02:59):
a milk carton works, right.
So you know what I'm talkingabout.
And he like was struggling withit so hard and then he opened
it but it splashed the milkeverywhere and it was a disaster
.
They were basically sellingthis spout, which I don't know
if you've ever watched theHunger Games or if you're a
nature enthusiast, but a spileright, it was kind of like a
spile.
A spile is like this spout thatyou can hammer into a tree and
(03:22):
it brings the water out of thetree, and spout that you can
like hammer into a tree and itlike brings the water out of the
tree and you can drink it.
It was kind of that.
You basically jabbed thisplastic spout into the top of
the milk carton and you wereable to pour the milk and voila
right.
So the entire job of theinfomercial was to sell you
these products.
But the thing was they werehaving to spend that first 20
(03:43):
minutes of a 30-minuteinfomercial explaining to you
why you had this problem thatuntil you saw the infomercial
you had never even considered.
You didn't realize you had theproblem until they told you you
had the problem.
And then, oh my gosh, well,they have the solution.
So I must absolutely buy thisproduct now.
And any Gen Xer worth theirsalt probably has a basement or
(04:06):
a garage or an attic with atleast a few boxes filled with
purchases from theseinfomercials.
Whether they were on theSaturday morning slot or like
three in the morning, it doesn'tmatter.
But I'm guaranteeing you thatmost of us probably have an
infomercial graveyard somewherein our home.
Now infomercials reallypioneered.
As far as I'm concerned, thisidea of we're going to create
(04:31):
the problem so we can sell youthe solution Now, prior to that,
marketing was really about Iknow people have this problem.
I'm going to come up with aninnovative solution.
But now marketing is all aboutlet's invent the problem first,
convince people they have it andthen sell them the solution.
But now marketing is all about.
Let's invent the problem first,convince people they have it
and then sell them the solution.
It's nuanced, but it'sdefinitely prevalent,
(04:53):
particularly in the onlinebusiness space, where every
program, every course, every,everything is designed to solve
a problem you didn't realize youhad, but this person is the
ultimate solution for it.
Their program, their product,their course, their whatever, is
the solution for this problem.
(05:14):
Now, on the face of it, that'snot really a bad thing, because
I'm sure there are a lot ofprofessionals out there who are
like you know what?
You probably don't realize thatthis is your problem because
you don't have the breadth ofexperience or the knowledge or
whatever, and in those cases,that's fine, right, they can
explain to you.
Here's why this is probably theproblem, this is likely what's
(05:34):
happening and here's thesolution that I have to help you
with that problem.
That's totally fine.
What I have an issue with iswhen it is marketed as the
solution to fix everything.
You have to be really carefulwith that.
Let me give you an example.
There are a lot of and I'm justgoing to say marketing, because
we're talking about marketing.
There are a lot of marketingprograms that are out there to
(05:56):
say that you know what thisprogram is going to solve all
your problems.
You take this program, youimplement my framework or my
method, and you're now going tohave endless leads, endless
clients.
You're going to be able to makemoney, money, money hand over
fist, and that's great.
But what a lot of people are notthinking about is how that
marketing system integrates withthe rest of their business
(06:19):
ecosystem.
There is no part of yourbusiness that stands alone.
There is no part of yourbusiness that exists in a silo,
not a single freaking one.
So you have to be very, verydiscerning when you are taking
into consideration what toinvest in, because, let's say,
(06:41):
you buy this program and you fixwhatever marketing issue you
didn't realize you had byimplementing their system into
your marketing system.
Well, how does that marketingsystem now interact with or
integrate with the rest of yourbusiness?
Does it account for the factthat there is also a sales
process, that there is a leadgeneration process, that there
is a lead generation process,that there is a delivery process
(07:03):
, that there is operations totake care of, any number of
other things that have to beconsidered in order for that one
marketing system to actually beeffective.
So we take the marketing course,we implement that system into
our business and things don'tchange overnight.
Huh, okay, maybe that marketingsystem wasn't the best, I'm
(07:24):
going to find a different one.
You invest in that same thing,you.
You pull out the marketingfunction of your business, you
fix it up and then you plug itback in and then you hope that
everything else will light up asa result of that.
It's kind of like a string ofChristmas lights.
Right, you got to find that onebad bulb that doesn't light up,
because that one, once you fixit, everything else will light
(07:45):
up.
I'm sorry, business doesn'twork that way.
Business does not work that way.
Business is not a string ofChristmas lights.
Business is, yes, absolutely.
All of the systems areintegrated, they're interactive,
they intersect with each other,so you can't just pull out one
piece without at leastconsidering everything else.
There are seven distinct areasof business that you have to
(08:08):
consider when you are looking atchanging or implementing
something in one place.
Right, you've got youroperations.
Obviously, that is the sort ofhow all of the things work
together as the infrastructureof your business.
There is your sales and yourmarketing.
You can count those as twoseparate things or you can put
them together, but they're twodistinct functions.
(08:29):
Let's be clear about that.
There is financial implicationsto take consideration of.
There is delivery of youractual product or service.
There is how you are going toinnovate on that product and
what the customer experience isgoing to be like.
There is team development andHR and all of that stuff, right,
(08:54):
and there are likesubcategories under each of
those, but those are, as ageneral kind of rule, the main
categories of your business thatall interact with each other,
that you need to think aboutwhen you're making changes in
one place or another.
And we don't really do that andthis is not me trying to blame
or shame anybody, because noteveryone has the breadth of
(09:15):
experience, the knowledge, theeducation to understand all of
this stuff.
So this is why I really reallyfeel like when you have a
problem in your business, whensomething is not working, when
you are trying to achieve a goaland it's not happening, or
you're struggling or there's abottleneck or there's just
something not working, the worstthing you can do is to listen
(09:37):
to an ad tell you that this isprobably your problem, because
they haven't looked at yourentire ecosystem.
They haven't looked ateverything from start to finish
to identify the gaps.
There are very few people whocan do that effectively and
those are people who havestrategy experience, like
hands-on actual development,like business development
(10:00):
experience, people who can auditthe entire business and not
just from a marketing lens, notjust from a sales lens, but from
the lens of all of thesefunctions are distinct but
interconnected, and let's seehow they're interacting with
each other so that we candetermine where the gap is and
what to do about it.
(10:20):
Interacting with each other, sothat we can determine where the
gap is and what to do about it,then you can go and seek out
the things that are required tofill those gaps.
You can't do it the other wayaround.
Now, my friend Nikki McKnightwas on the show a few weeks back
and she talked about and I lovethe way she described this, but
putting the hypothesis in withthe question right, and it's
this idea of I need to be onsocial media more so that I can
(10:43):
get more clients.
Well, how do you know thatsocial media is the problem or
the solution?
We don't know that, becausemaybe that doesn't work for your
particular goals, maybe thatdoesn't work for the kinds of
things you're trying to achieve.
So it's really important to goright back to the beginning and
go okay, here's what the outcomeis that we're looking for.
Here's what we're trying toactually accomplish with this
(11:05):
business.
Okay, what does that look like?
What does that look like interms of where you should be
showing up and how you should beshowing up and what your
messaging is supposed to looklike?
And then, when you actuallyengage those people, how do you
nurture them?
How do you bring them into yourecosystem?
What does your ecosystem evenlook like?
Where are you going to takethese people?
What's the journey look like?
And what does thatinfrastructure, the operational
(11:28):
piece, what does that look liketo support that journey and to
make sure that you are not theone doing everything and all the
things, and sometimes eventhings you don't need to be
doing at all?
And when they're in yourecosystem and now they want to
buy, what does the sales processlook like and what's the
infrastructure that's supportingthat?
And then what's the follow-up,care and what's happening during
delivery and what's going tohappen when they leave.
(11:49):
What are you doing aboutretention?
What are you doing about all ofthese things.
So it's never just a simplesingle solution Ever, ever, ever
.
Now I'm not saying you have tohave hundreds of thousands of
dollars to invest in everysingle aspect of your business
right off the hop, but youdefinitely need to think about
the entire ecosystem.
So look for someone who canhelp you sit down and map out
(12:09):
not in any great detail, becauseobviously you're going to
require experts in thosedifferent fields to help you
with that part but understandingat the very minimum what is the
outcome you're actually lookingfor, and not just from a
business perspective.
Don't tell me well, the outcomeI'm looking for is 10k a month,
or the outcome I'm looking foris seven figures in my business,
(12:31):
because that doesn't mean shit.
Do you know what it takes toget there?
Do you know what it takes tosustain it long term?
Does that actually jive withyour lifestyle, not the one that
you want to have one day, butthe one you currently have.
Are you supporting it with thecapacities that you have
available?
Go back and listen to theepisode on capacities if you
don't know what I'm talkingabout.
(12:51):
Do you have everything that youneed to have to get to that
outcome?
And why that particular outcome?
What is it about that number orthat outcome that is so
important?
What is that going to allow youto do?
We don't think about thesethings, because all of the
marketing says 10K months, 20kmonths, six figures, seven
(13:12):
figures, but nobody talks aboutall of the shit that comes
before that, because they'rejust trying to sell you their
program.
Before that, because they'rejust trying to sell you their
program, they don't care if itactually works for you.
It might work for the 1%, youknow, the two people who can
give them a fantastictestimonial and somehow
represent the other 98%.
(13:33):
That's not how it works.
So all of this to say be verycareful when you are investing
in things or consideringinvesting in things, because you
have to remember that the jobof marketing today is to tell
you what the problem is andconvince you that you have it so
(13:54):
that they can sell you theirsolution.
You have to be discerningenough to actually know whether
or not that is actually theproblem.
And if you can't tell, if youdon't know how to figure that
part out, don't ask the personwho's trying to sell you the
program.
Talk to someone else, talk to astrategist, talk to a business
(14:15):
development advisor, go to yourlocal chamber of commerce and
ask them for recommendations.
Advisor, go to your localchamber of commerce and ask them
for recommendations.
Figure out what the gaps arefirst, and then make the
investments you need to make.
Don't do it backwards, becausethat is why there are so many
businesses that are still stuckwhere they are today, which is
(14:37):
the same place they were fiveyears ago or six years ago or
three years ago doesn't matter,and I know this because I've
been in this space long enoughto have seen the development of
so many businesses.
It is not your fault.
Marketing is predicated on theidea of selling you a problem
(14:59):
first, so they can then sell youthe solution.
If you're wanting to do anaudit for yourself very quickly
first, before you investanywhere else, let me tell you
how to do that.
The very first thing you shoulddo sit down right, take an hour,
go somewhere quiet, get yourbeverage of choice not alcohol,
(15:23):
because you want to have a clearbrain.
As you do this, you don't wantto get emotional, and I want you
to sit down and actuallyreconnect with you.
What is it that you startedthis business for in the first
place?
Because I'll tell you a lot ofthe conversations I've been
having lately, and certainlyeven for my own self.
If you've been in business fortwo, three, four, five years,
(15:45):
odds are you are in a verydifferent place today than you
were when you started yourbusiness.
Some of it has been growth andsome of it has been evolution,
but I'm going to hazard a guessthat a lot of it, too, is just
noise All of the shoulds and thecoulds.
So sit down with yourself andremind yourself of what you
actually started this foryourself, of what you actually
(16:07):
started this for.
Was it to spend time with yourkids?
Was it to leave your full-timejob?
Was it to have extra income tohelp pay down your mortgage
faster?
Maybe take your family onholiday once or twice a year?
Was it to have financialsecurity?
You've got to sit down and askyourself that question and be
really, really honest withyourself about whether that is
(16:29):
still what you're workingtowards.
And if you're like, yeah, I'mstill working towards that,
fantastic.
And if you're like, no, I thinkI've lost my way a little bit.
That's okay, that's okay.
The machine is designed thatway.
So this is the perfectopportunity to sit down and be
like you know what.
So this is the perfectopportunity to sit down and be
like you know what I need torefocus.
(16:49):
Be very clear with yourselfabout the outcome you're trying
to achieve by having a business.
What is the purpose of thisbusiness for you?
For you, not your clients, notyour prospects.
You what is this business goingto make possible for you?
(17:12):
What is it supposed to makepossible for you?
And once you've done that, Iwant you to walk away.
I want you to walk away and letit percolate in your head.
Does it feel good?
Does it still taste good?
Because if it does now you canask yourself if that's the
outcome that that I want, whatdo I have to actually do to get
it?
And this may be where you asksomebody who has no stake in
(17:36):
your business, somebody who'snot trying to sell you anything,
somebody who just can help youunderstand business development,
can help you break down yourgoals, can help you understand
how things intersect.
Hint, hint people like me whoare not going to pitch, slap you
after a conversation.
You get someone like that tohelp you if you need or you know
(17:58):
what you can figure that outfor yourself to help.
Pop it into chat GPT.
Pop it into Claude, pop it intoGemini, whatever.
Don't take it you know 100% asgospel, but use it as a
brainstorming tool.
Do not ask it to do strategyfor you.
Please, please, don't, please,don't.
Ideally, ask a human being butthis is where you sit down and
you go okay, what do I actuallyneed to do to get to that
(18:21):
outcome, to that goal?
Reverse engineer it, figure outwhat the steps are, figure out
what the milestones are.
And then the third step look atyour day-to-day, look at your
week.
Are you actually doing any ofthose things with any great
consistency?
Because if you're not andyou're mired in busy work or
you're doing things that don'treally make sense, but somebody
(18:44):
else is doing it, or a coachtold you to do it, or I'm not
really sure why I'm supposed tobe doing this, but I've been
doing it for so long.
It's second nature.
It doesn't matter.
We're not here to judge.
Figure out whether what you'resupposed to be doing or what you
should be doing to get to youroutcome and what you actually
are doing, whether they're milesapart, whether they're just a
few feet apart, or whetherthey're working well together.
(19:06):
That is how you figure outwhere your gaps are.
Now you can go out and look forthe right supports to help you
get there.
Marketing is always going to dowhat marketing does.
We're never going to changethat.
But you, as an autonomousbusiness owner, get to be more
discerning about how you look atmarketing, how you understand
(19:29):
it and how you internalize it.
Remember that it is there tocreate the problem first, so it
can sell you the solution.
And, like I alluded to before,if you want someone to bounce
ideas off of hit me up, I'm notgoing to pitch you.
I don't have any offershappening right now.
(19:49):
I am genuinely in a place in myown life and business where I
just want to help people get towhere they're trying to go.
The way things are in the worldright now, we need to focus
particularly us women,particularly us women of color.
We need to focus on actuallygetting that financial security
(20:10):
and autonomy that most of usstarted these businesses for in
the first place, but we need todo it in a way that does not
require 80 to 90% of what wemake to be reinvested back in a
coach or in a program orwhatever.
We need the capacity to be ableto put it aside, and so my
whole ethos is let's build thesebusinesses as lean as we can,
(20:32):
because your budget is not theflex.
Hitting your goals is the flex,and doing it in a way that
doesn't require you to sell outor sacrifice your sanity or your
stability or your life rightnow.
That's what we're looking for,right?
Maybe I'll do more earlymorning shops, because they're
(20:54):
so quiet and my brain loves tocome up with things when things
are quiet.
And I got to say, when you'rewalking around the grocery store
at like seven, eight o'clock inthe morning and every song that
comes over the speakers is likea banger from your youth, you
realize how old you actually are.
That's a story for another day.
Like I always say, my friends,you can have success without the
(21:16):
BS and it's fucking time we didit.
I'll talk to you soon.
That's it for this week.
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.
(21:39):
Thanks for listening andremember you can have success
without the BS.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.