Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Full Cow,
a podcast about leather kink and
BDSM.
My name is Edge, my pronounsare he, him, and I'm your host.
And this, of course, is anotherinterlude the episode between
episodes, offered raw andunedited, but with Langlitz,
leather creaking.
And for those of you who followthe podcast closely, you might
(00:23):
notice that this interlude isout of place.
Normally, the first Friday ofthe month, I release a full
episode and then an interludetwo weeks later, but since it's
the end of the year and the nextepisode is actually the season
finale, I thought it'd be evenbetter to have it closer to New
(00:44):
Year's Eve.
In fact, I may do it veryprobably later than the usual
schedule.
So one of the things I wantedto share and talk about in this
interlude is my newestexploration, which is leather
life coaching.
I am, as I said in my socials,exploring the leather life
(01:05):
coaching space and, wow, that'sbeen really interesting.
It started because ofessentially anxiety.
I have a lot of anxiety aboutthe future right now the economy
.
Where's the economy going to go?
I don't have a lot ofconfidence about the economy, so
in part, I've been trying topull back on my spending a
(01:27):
little bit, but I also startedthinking, wow, it'd be nice to
have just a little extra moneyas a little cushion.
And I was at the gym onemorning thinking, oh, I should,
maybe I could do Uber Eats ormaybe I could deliver for Amazon
.
And then it just sort of struckme I could do leather life
coaching.
That's something that I hadexplored.
(01:48):
Well, I explored life coachingwith a career coach I'd worked
with and it's something I'vetalked about with my therapist
and it just intuitively feltlike such a good fit for me, and
so I was like, oh, this is thetime to do it.
So it's logisticallycomplicated not the actual doing
(02:10):
of it, but the setting it up.
I spent quite a bit of timefinding a scheduling software
that would sync with my multiplecalendars, and so I finally set
up some available slots, andthen I did a little quick video
on Instagram and on blue sky andon Twitter, and the goal was to
, just since I am I'm exploringthis space, I was going to take
(02:33):
10 people and you get a freeconsultation 20 minutes long,
and then, if you decide to workwith me, you would get a 25%
discount off my usual rate of$50 an hour.
So that would cost people$37.50 an hour.
I posted this and very quicklythe response to it was
(02:53):
remarkable.
It kind of surprised me In someways.
It surprised me, but I had 10people within a couple of hours
and I ended up actually taking15 and then shutting it off, and
that's again.
I'm exploring this.
I don't know that.
I know what I'm doing now thatI've done five consultations so
(03:15):
far and all these people, I'mlike oh, I know the exact answer
you're looking for.
So I do know what I'm doing,but the actual doing of it is
complicated and that has thathas meant I've already moved to
another scheduling system,because the first one wasn't
really ideal.
Now I'm using Acuity, whichreally seems very good for my
(03:35):
needs.
It's part of the square spaceenvironment.
It meant I needed to go get adomain name set up, email put
together, a rough website right,and then eventually it will
mean figuring out payments.
So the plan is generate a littleextra income, help people
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everybody wins.
So I've got these 15 peoplethat I'm doing consultations
with and then we'll see how manydecide to work with me.
For as long as they choose towork with me, they will get my
guaranteed rate of $37.50 perone hour Zoom session.
Eventually they will move offbecause they've achieved their
(04:17):
goals, and as they drop off Iwill take a pause because if
this is working, if this seemsworkable, if people move from
consultation to coaching andstart paying, and then if that
is successful and I know I cando it and I know people value it
then I'm going to stop, stepback just a little bit and set
(04:40):
up the whole actual business ofit Get an LLC, talk to lawyers,
talk to my accountant, get anEIN, all the thingy things, and
then as part of that also docredit card processing, like the
whole official, official stuff,and then I'm going to open up
for business.
The goal is to always staypretty limited with no more than
(05:02):
10 to 15 clients, and when I doreopen or open I guess this is
a soft opening when I have myhard opening, 10 to 15 clients
will be at $50 an hour, $50 persession, same thing, right.
As they drop off, the nextbatch comes in at $60 an hour
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and then the batch after that weraise it a little bit more.
And we raise it a little bitmore as they drop off.
The next batch comes in at $60an hour and then the batch after
that we raise a little bit more, and we raise a little bit more
.
I don't know quite where I'llstop.
I want to find what the painpoint is.
What will the market bear?
I also want to be reallycognizant of the kind of people
who are coming to me for helpand what economic resources they
may have available to them.
So I imagine I might givediscounts for people who are
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just starting or facing economichardships.
I'm not here to be evilcapitalist, but at the same time
I am here to coach, and that'sthe plan.
The plan is 15 people for a testand then move into business and
slowly circulate throughclients until I reach a price
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that makes sense to everyone,makes sense to them and makes
sense to me.
And originally I thought, oh,this is just going to be.
Essentially I'm trying to payfor my personal trainer.
That's really what it comesdown to.
You know, I had this thing withmy mortgage.
My mortgage is going up becauseI got reclassified as being in
a flood zone and even though I'mon the second floor, I need to
(06:35):
get flood insurance.
And my mortgage company ismaking me get flood insurance.
So then they're like you canuse the condo flood insurance.
So I got the condo floodinsurance and I uploaded it and
then the mortgage companythought I had to pay that for
every year.
So they thought I was paying$3,000 every year.
So then my escrow went up.
So then my mortgage craziness.
But my mortgage payment went upand I might have to give up my
(06:57):
personal trainer.
I am fully shamefully notshamefully fully embarrassingly
cognizant of what a ridiculousluxury problem I'm describing.
But the point is I started thisleather life coaching to make a
few extra bucks so that,essentially, I could keep my
personal trainer.
(07:18):
But it's opened up anotherpossible possible dream and that
is acquiring mobility.
Right now I have a great,fantastic job, but I'm very much
stuck in Florida.
Now, where I am in Florida, inWalton Manors, which is
extraordinarily gay, it's not abad place to be stuck,
(07:41):
especially right now.
The weather right now isstunning outside, like dips into
the high 50s overnight, so it'snice and crisp and cool During
the day.
It's in the 70s.
It's great weather.
Now is the time to live inFlorida.
So if I have to be stucksomewhere, florida is a good
(08:01):
place to be stuck, but I think Iwant to be able to move
somewhere else if I choose, andit's not even about the
political environment.
It's really about if I find apartner who lives in another
city, which is my pattern.
I tend to because of myinterest in leather and kink.
(08:21):
My local pool is very small, soI tend to date people in other
cities, and then the logisticsof us living together never work
out.
We never get to that, and rightnow it would mean making
someone move to Florida.
Well, okay, but I want theoption of moving to someone.
Should I choose?
Beyond that, there is thepossibility of leaving this
(08:45):
country being a digital nomad.
So the goal is, if this takesoff for now, pay for a personal
trainer, but if I can reallygrow this as a business, that
I'm getting very close.
I'm about one year away fromearly retirement, so I could
draw a little bit from myretirement.
(09:05):
Do my leather life coaching beanywhere in the world?
While I'm doing that and thatis a beautiful, beautiful dream
of mine of people who are comingto me and the different sorts
of issues they have and I'mreally again it's sort of like,
(09:36):
oh, I feel like I'm doing these20-minute consultations and I
feel like, oh, I can solve yourproblem, here's the answer, like
I could just give it to themand I do sort of talk about.
Well, here are the things wecan work on, but part of what
I'm struggling with is I'm soused to giving it away that I'm
struggling to value my time,knowledge and experience and
actually charge for it.
And again, that's reallycomplicated because so much of
(10:00):
the podcast and the socials isabout giving away what I know.
I've been very intentionalabout not generating a lot of
income off the podcast or offthe socials, but that is my way
of giving back to my community.
But that doesn't mean that Ican't also charge for my time,
(10:20):
and I think the way, so I'mhaving to wrap my head around
charging for my time.
That's really what it comesdown to, that if I'm going to be
this leather life coach, thenwhat they're really paying for
is my time and a lot of what I'msharing.
If people spent days scrollingback through my Twitter or my
Instagram, they might findvideos that would give them
(10:41):
exactly what they need.
But these people ideally, ifthis works out are paying to
have my utterly focusedattention for one hour where all
of my knowledge and all of myexperience and all of my
resources are available to them,specifically to them
specifically to their situation,versus watching a video that
(11:02):
maybe kind of speaks to them.
A video that maybe kind ofspeaks to them.
So that's the business modeland it's been interesting.
I'm doing these tests of 15people and as part of that I
need to really figure out whatI'm calling oh my God, I'm such
a business person now theconversion rate.
So if I have 15 consultations,how many of those will become
(11:24):
paying clients?
I don't know.
I don't know.
How many sessions does anaverage client use?
I don't know.
I'm going to find out.
Do they find the coachingsessions valuable?
I don't know.
I'm going to find out.
What am I going to do when Irun into people who don't pay
(11:45):
Because I think that could becoming right?
Inevitably someone I going todo.
When I run into people whodon't pay Because I think that
could be coming right,inevitably someone's going to
not pay.
And then what do I do aboutthat?
And the nice thing is that fornow, this isn't my income, this
is my personal trainer money.
So if they don't pay, it's likeall right, lesson learned.
But there's just so much aroundforming this as a business that
I'm thinking about and playingthrough my mind quite a bit.
(12:09):
I will say, if you're curious,the website is in.
Just I threw something togetheron Squarespace but I did find
there's.
You know there was thisexplosion of top level domains,
that's.
You know there used to becomneteduedu, gov, org, and that
was sort of it.
Now there's anything, there's acoach, so I got a coach domain
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name and it's a really simplewebsite and then it primarily is
the scheduling and that waskind of fun.
I love, you know, I lovegetting immersed in a kind of
project and this has been a kindof project for me.
Um, if you're listening to this, you're obviously too late to
sign up for the freeconsultations, for now to get in
(12:54):
on the ground floor, but Iimagine I will be letting people
know across all of my mediaoutlets, including the podcast,
instagram, blue Sky and Twitter,that if this takes off, I will
open that up and we'll see.
You know I would really like toand we'll see you know I would
(13:16):
really like to.
It's been my dream for a whileto not be stuck in Florida, to
be able to move for joy, forcomfort, for safety and for love
, and this is my best path tothat that I know today.
So I'm very excited for it.
I'm excited to help people, butyou know, I try to help people
(13:36):
as much as I can, as often as Ican and in many ways as I can,
in as many venues as I can.
This is going to be somethingdifferent.
I don't even know what this isgoing to be for me, emotionally,
cognitively.
What's it like for me again tocharge for my time, to also
recognize that my time has valuein these spaces, that while I
(13:57):
will continue to give away inthe podcast, in the socials, I
will continue to give away, butis it okay for me to charge?
Like really wrapping my headaround that?
It's part of the long-term plan, right?
So we've got the 15 test peopleand we stop.
We set up a whole business, wego forward, we start gathering
clients, we raise the ratesuntil we find the rate that's
(14:19):
right for everyone.
Then I will actually probablyalso do some actual life coach
training, which isn't cheap andalso which is not required.
I've seen a lot of posts onReddit, which is where you go to
find the truth of things, whereit's like you know what?
I had a life coachingcertificate.
No one has ever asked me for mycertificate, so you can just do
it.
If you know what you're doing,we'll see.
There's a lot, a lot a lot tobe learned in this, and I'm
(14:42):
sharing this part of it with youright now.
The other thing that's going onin case you've not been on all
the socials is I will beteaching at Austin Kink Weekend.
I am teaching a class onprotocol and I am hosting a
leather social and I am going tobe there.
That's very exciting.
Austin Kink Weekend seemed togrow very quickly.
(15:06):
One year, as far as I know, itdidn't exist.
The next year I kind of heardabout it.
The next year everyone I knewwas going.
So it's been growing reallyrapidly and I'm excited to
partake in that.
And then the last thing I'llshare with you is a little
update from my last interlude,and that is how I'm really
(15:26):
crafting my resistance in thisnew political world that I live
in.
And I have started wearingleather more often out.
Like I was having cigars with afriend tonight.
It was a little cool.
I'm like I'm wearing leather.
I was having dinner with afriend on Friday.
It was a little chilly.
I said I'm wearing leather.
So I am becoming more visibleas a leather person and I feel
(15:48):
empowered to do that.
This life coach, leather, lifecoach thing also makes me want
to live in my leather a littlebit more on a daily basis, and
so that's a good thing.
Thank you, as always, forlistening.
That was a little rambly, butwe'll see how the leather life
coaching goes.
I'm excited to see whoever'sgoing to be at Austin Weekend in
(16:13):
April.
I will see you there, and ifyou see me out and about,
there's a better chance you'llbe seeing me in leather.
And next time we'll have theseason finale, which isn't going
to be two weeks from today,it's probably going to be later
in the month, so I can reallywell, mostly so I can get all
the data.
Until then, I hope everyone isdoing exquisitely well.