How you’re being lied to about the online business space

Today’s episode of the podcast is a solo episode, where I talk about what I really think of the online business space! This might feel a little bit controversial, but it’s something that I am passionate about being more transparent on.   I talk about my frustrations with it, and how they have prompted me to look at how I show up online, how I sell in my business, and most importantly how I make sure I’m not part of the problem.   This episode covers some of the things you might want to consider before starting an online business, and why that life might not be for you.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST: What an online business is, and how it differs to other business models. The dream you are sold, versus the reality of having an online business. The things lots of online businesses don’t tell you when they are selling you their course. The costs involved in a successful big launch and the overheads in running a 6-figure business can be huge. Why a personal brand for an online business means it should always be you that your audience hears from. A reminder that the huge success stories you see are not typical results. Why I chose an online business and what I love about it. The things I do and don’t do in my online business. Spoiler, I do most of it!   THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE: Having a successful online business is absolutely possible, but there are no quick or easy routes to success. You must love what you do.   HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS: The questions you need to ask yourself if you are considering an online business. How to avoid falling into the marketing quicksand that promises you overnight success. Why outcomes can never be guaranteed, and why no one factor will ever be the key to success.   RESOURCES MENTIONED:   Teresa and Ben live Becci Hollis Instagram and Website Becci McEvoy Socials and Website Jasmine Star Socials and Website Sian Pryce Socials and Website   TRANSCRIPT   Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are things going? I'm really hoping that by this point, cause obviously, you know, I batch records. So I'm more about four or five weeks ahead. And the weather started to turn a bit nicer. I pray to goodness, by the time we're listening to this, you're listening in the sun, maybe going for a walk, maybe, you know, sitting in the garden, whatever it might be that is. My thing, getting in the garden, doing a bit of gardening. I honestly don't recognize myself sometimes that I'm out there getting dirt under my nails, which is a real pain. My lovely nail technician tells me off. But anyway, so this we've got a solo episode and I want to talk about something that might feel a little bit controversial. Now, if you've been following me on social media, you'll know that I have been talking. Over there for a little while about this, I paid attention to the online world and about my frustrations with it, even though I'm in it. And also if you get my emails, you might see that some of the emails that I've sent recently are talking about how I'm starting to look at how I show up in this online world and, and yeah. How I sell and. How I make sure I'm not like the things I don't like. This sounds a bit confusing, but I promise. I can't promise. It'll make sense. I hope it'll make sense. Okay. So let's talk about what I mean by the online world first, shall we? So I don't mean doing things online because all of us do things online. I'm talking specifically about an online business and what this normally looks like is a business like mine. I have a one-to-one. A high touch program, which is a 90 day program where you can work with me one-to-one and we can work through your business, but obviously it's online and you speak to me over zoom. I have a membership, I have courses, I have three levels in the membership, depending on where you are in your business, your budget and your support that you need. And I pretty much lived my entire life online. And so that's the sort of thing I'm talking about. So memberships, courses, one to many offerings. So what you're going to hear in this episode is the fact that if you go back to some of my earlier episodes, I'm very likely to contradict myself and that's fine. And I will explain why. So, yeah, so that's what I mean by an online business now. Why would someone want to go into the online business space? Well, if you are doing something that is a one-to-one thing. So I, obviously my expertise is in marketing and I was a marketing consultant when I first started my business. And then we did a bit of agency stuff, and then I built that and then I didn't want to do that anymore. And I wanted to help more people. And I wanted to go into this world of, yeah great I can create one thing or do one training and I hit lots of people with it, and this is for various reasons. And for me, one of the reasons was I can help lots of people because I am super passionate about what I do and adore what I do and love helping people. In fact, I'm not even kidding. It sounds like I'm making this up. This morning I got a message saying that someone wrote their gratitude list. And I was on it twice and I just, honestly, it makes my heart melt. I love this stuff. I love helping people. So that's one of the reasons, and that's the good reason. That's why you would want an online business. And then there's another reason why people want an online business, because the way the people sell online businesses i.e. if I'm an online business expert, and I want to encourage you to do an online business or have an online business the way in which I sell it to you is by telling you that you just create one thing and you get paid for it over and over and over and over and over. So rather than delivering that training, one-to-one you create one training and then suddenly you can sell it to as many people as you want. It means they sell it as a way to considerably increase your income, because again, then the same sort of thing in terms of like, you can't, you can only sell out your hours for so many hours. So if you're doing one-to-one work, you've only got one. Even if you did them back to back every single day, you can do what's maybe six hours in a day because you need to breathe and eat and that sort of thing. There's a limit on it. There's only so much you can do, therefore, unless you suddenly charge a huge amount of money for the thing you're doing, which I was about to say, everything has its ceiling price and it doesn't in reality. There are people out there paying, you know, I've had an example of a, um, a PT that does all the stars and obviously they will be charging them a goddamn fortune. So it's not that there is a ceiling, but there's how, do you get what I mean, like there is a ceiling, but there isn't a ceiling, but you've got to be something very special to stand out. And it's the few and far between that can do that in terms of hiking their prices through the roof. So that's the other thing. So, um, they say obviously unless you kind of put your prices up hugely then you're earning potential is limited. However, it's not with an online business. The other thing that's sold to you is that you can work from anywhere and you can manage your own time and you don't have clients and you're your own boss and it's just heaven. And. So you might be listening to this thinking, what the hell am I thinking? Why have I not jumped on this online business line? Online business line, online business world sooner. I need to get myself a membership or a course or whatever, because I want to earn lots more money than I'm earning. I want to do one thing and then sell it over and over and over again. I want to lay on a beach and not have to worry about it, or they talk about passive income as well. Um, that it's passive. Okay. So what they mean by passive is you do it once and then you sell it over and over and you don't have to do anything. Money just rolls in. So it sounds flipping amazing,...