Ep #160: Calling Truth to Shady Business Practices

You are listening to episode 160 of The Confident Coaches Podcast, the one where we’re going to call out some shady business and we’re going to talk the truth about hard work.

Welcome to the Confident Coaches Podcast, a place for creating the self-confidence you need to do your best work as a life coach. If you want to bring more boldness, more resilience, and more joy to your work, this is the place for you. I’m. Amy Latta, let’s dive in.

Hello, my coaching friends. I hope you all had an amazing holiday weekend here in the States. It’s not quite December, but guys, we basically just have, holy cow, four and a half, five weeks left in the year. So exciting. 2022, my friends. Are you ready for 2023? That’s not a real year. 2023. Is that even a real year? That sounds like in the future. Oh, it’s in five weeks. It’s crazy.

I’m a little fired up here. I am introducing as if I’m all like super lovey and all of that. But actually, I’m super feisty because, there’s been a theme, a theme keeps coming up in all of the coaching that I’ve been doing for the past few weeks. And as I’ve been processing how this keeps coming up in coaching, I’ve had some revelations.

Some things that we’ve just accepted is standard business practice in the online world, and what I think are some lies that we’ve bought into that need to stop. So, what keeps coming up is this idea of like, this is hard, and you didn’t expect it to be so hard. Like, “oh my God, I just didn’t think it was going to be this hard. This is really hard. I just didn’t think that this was going to be so hard.” And I’m like, “why didn’t you think this was going to be hard? Have you ever built a business from scratch before? Have you ever done it all on your own?”

Where you are you, the thing that is being sold? A handful of you maybe have, but I would say like maybe 5% of my clients have even had a business.

Of their own. That doesn’t mean they haven’t worked in business, but a business of their own. But even when they had a business of their own, there was something where they weren’t necessarily the business. And there just seems to be this thing that’s like, “I just didn’t think this was going to be so hard.”

And it’s kind of come up in a few different ways. A newer coach who hasn’t signed, but maybe one or two clients and already wants to double her price because like, this is just so much time and just so much energy. I’m not getting compensated for my time.

Now, that right there out of the box, we can tell that is not an entrepreneurial mindset at all because entrepreneurs aren’t thinking about dollars for time, right?

We’re thinking about putting value out in the world and usefulness out in the world and getting paid back, so that right there, is just to notice that if we’re like, “I have put in so many hours so far and I am not getting paid for those hours,” that is a worker mindset. That right there is a worker mindset, and it is embedded through our capitalistic society.

Listen, I am not an anti-capitalist in that capitalism is like the for-profit world. I am in a for-profit business, but we really have seen how much pain and destruction capitalism can create and how much, it really depends on having a worker mentality, a dollars for hour mentality. The people running the big shows, they don’t think that way because they know that there’s so much work on the front end.

So just notice that and start to challenge that thinking that you are not a worker in a capitalistic society. You are a business who is putting value and usefulness out into the world. This is not a dollars for hours exchange. So, it’s one thing to notice. It’s also come up in a more seasoned coach who just thought this many years in that there’d be more profit in the business, that there’d be more income, there’d be more customers coming through the metaphorical doors, but there’d be more consults on the calendar.

“Why aren’t there. I’ve been doing this for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years. How is it that I’m still only getting a handful of clients a year? How is it that I’m still only making 20 or $30,000 five years in? This shouldn’t be hard. This shouldn’t be so hard. I should be turning a profit. I should be in the black in a year or two.”

And I want to be really clear, that I can see that thinking also, and it makes sense why? Because the online business, community industry, I don’t know how long it, how old it is, 15, 20 years at the most though. Like it started off with some shady shit. And now we have a lot of solidly good people who have replicated a lot of that shady shit.

There’s a lot of not cool business practices in the online world that we would never accept in the old, traditional brick and mortar world. We just wouldn’t. Have you ever heard a commercial with McDonald’s where they go, “listen, we’ve made 5.2 billion last year. That’s why you should come eat with us.” No, but that’s what we see in the online business world.

“I made six figures, I made seven figures, and that’s why you should hire me is because I have made that money.” And I need to say it before you think it. I have done this too because I also have modeled some shady shit in my past. It’s been modeled for me and was taught like this is the way we do things and I have repeated it, so I’m coming right outta the gate.

I am coming clean of taking an inventory of where I have used some of these shady things. Where you’re, you know, you have an entire sales page that is just random screenshots from your DMs and your Facebooks, where you’ve just kinda like scratched out the people’s names. Like that’s not how businesses do business.

It’s not that you don’t have testimonials, but there’s a way about them, and I for sure, for sure have modeled things where I was like, well, so and so’s doing it. So yes, I can.

Here’s the crappiest thing about admitting this. Like, here’s the thing. Side note, I can be so fired up about this topic because I can see where I have done a lot of these things and I see it for what it really is, and I’m getting to the part where it’s like, I knew better, but I forgot myself.

And if I can fall victim to that, if I can fall prey, for sure anyone can, because here’s the thing, guys, I’m a corporate marketer. My degree actually is in business. I have a literal business degree. I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing.

I have the certificate that says this is what I studied. This is what my career was. Integrated marketing, communications, marketing strategy, assessment of the marketplace, how to use PR, how to put good spin on what’s going on, for sure. We’re not going out there and being like, “listen, I kind of suck this week, but you should buy from me.”

No, we’re not doing that necessarily, but like this is what I did for other companies. My hands and my brain because I’ve worked both. I’ve worked both in the marketing department of companies. My last job I was a director of marketing, as well as I’ve worked on the agency side, so I have had my brains and my hands and my mind on major corporations.

Where I could see what the strategy was, what the planning was, but then the online business came and we just like started throwing out basic rules of business out the window because there were a handful of people who were like, you too can do this. Let me show you how. I still remember this influencer that I had held in such high regard.

This is probably 2013, 2014, maybe 2015 at the latest, but definitely by 2016 I was like, “I don’t think that’s okay.” What this person is saying is one of the things that this person was saying, was that one of the ways that they accomplish so much in their business as they hired a VA, and they didn’t go hire a VA down the street.

They hired VAs from foreign countries. They hired VAs from foreign countries that they could pay $5 an hour. This person was saying this with pride, by the way, that it was great for the person in the foreign country, and it was great for them, and the whole time I’m like, something seems kind of shady about that, and yet here’s an entire podcast of how this is a best business practice, and I should do it too.

So, I really want to notice that like there were for sure things I never did, but also like we kind of threw the rules of civility out a little. Right for the laptop lifestyle for anybody with a computer and an idea and a willingness can get online. Say, I can help you and make a shit ton of money.

So, I do agree. It’s a little super weird that I fell into the “it’s just your thoughts anyone can do this crowd.” You know, it is a little weird that I fell into that. If I can do it, you can do it too, because I have that background. I do understand, and I did spot some shady shit that I wasn’t willing to do.

Here’s what I want to offer you is that multiple things can be true at the same time. It is true that a lot of things in your business and in your life are just your thinking. And it is true that there are fundamentals of business, integrated marketing, communications, business strategy, strategic planning, strategic management, all of those things.

Those things are also at play. And those things can also be true. Two things can be true at the same time, but we tend to throw one or the other out the window and completely disregard the other. And so, I think right out of the gate, one of the things that I do believe is true is that we are all examples of what is possible.

And I never, never, don’t think for a second that I ever want to diminish any client’s possibility. When I hear about like being an example of what is possible, I’m like, yes, let’s be more of that. This is America, right? This is home of manifest destiny. This is home of the American Dream, you know, pulling up your bootstraps and, and making what you want happen.

Like this is what this country was founded on. You know what? And also, though some people have some like real stuff going on in there. You know, it’s easy for me to say, put all of your eggs in your coaching basket and reinvest every dime you have, all the way to a 100k. Because I’m married with a husband who has a full-time job that pays all of our bills.

My income was never something the family needed. We didn’t need my coaching income to buy food or pay rent. And some of you do, right? So yes, we are all examples of possibility, and I never want to diminish any of your possibility. And also, we need to take your real life into consideration. You know, a lot of you are taking care of children and I’m looking at the like entrepreneurs that are out there killing it, and they have older kids, or they have a spouse that’s there taking care of the kids, or they don’t have kids at all.

And I know for me, I was the main caretaker and I saw some people able to build businesses with young children, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that. I was exhausted all of the time, and I just couldn’t do that for so many reasons. Some of your children have special needs. Some of you were taking care of parents or other relatives if there’s illness going on.

Some of you have mental health concerns that make entrepreneurship an entirely different bag than what’s being modeled out. Like there is so much intersectional stuff that may be going on that even I don’t have a comprehension of. I know I’ve worked with clients in other countries and cultures I don’t understand with parameters I’ve never experienced.

So, for me to say, “Hey, I did it, so can you.” That’s really shitty. It’s so disregarding of the human being that’s sitting right there in front of you. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to say, but if you’re a business coach like me, I’m going to need to offer you more than just that. Hey, I did it so can you, and also let me acknowledge that what you got going on might be different than what I got going on so, let’s brainstorm and consider strategies for that.

Because I think the second issue that comes up is that “wait, this does appear, it might be a little bit harder for me. I do have some different situations that you may not have. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a problem, but that is often met with, “you just have thought errors. You got to clean up that thinking.”

“Um, no. I’ve got 10k in debt, a full-time job, two kids at home, a sick mom, and I’m trying to live the laptop lifestyle you’re promoting. I want some of that. You’re making it look really super easy, but I’m looking around my home, I’m trying to figure out how I get from here to there.

You’re saying I just got to do everything you do and it’s going to be super easy. Can we, can we talk about me, and help me figure this out? Help me solve this? Help me come up with strategies that’s not just Oh, it’s just your bad thinking. Okay, well, I get that my thinking might make those things harder, and also those things are my reality. So, can we talk about that, and can we coach around that, and we can, we maybe come up with some solutions somewhere along the way?”

I think that we’ve forgotten that they’re very real human beings on the other end of the line. And yes, we can always think better about our situations to get out of them. And also, those situations are valid, and most importantly, they might need an entirely different strategy.

They may need a different understanding of the business fundamentals. That person can’t drive hours to networking events multiple times per week. That person may not have the money to put into Facebook ads. There can be so many different factors at play that when our entire credential is, “I’ve done it. You can too.” That’s a problem in this business, but there’s so much being sold out there that this should be quick, and it should be easy, and if it’s not, it’s just your thinking. And I think it’s really important, y’all.

You guys are business owners. You opened a business, and it is normal to take years for a business to be profitable.

Yes, there are lots of people who do get it right out of the gate, and it is possible for them. It is possible for you to decide you want to be a coach and to go get certified and to make a 100k a year. I’ve seen it happen. It is entirely possible. I’ve seen it happen with people who do have a lot of extenuating circumstances.

Again, I never want to diminish the possibility in any of my people, but we also need to hold and shine light and hold space for the realities also. I think the industry most people know that has the most relatable business model to coaching is real estate. Like in real estate. If you want to become a real estate agent, you will literally spend months and even years networking and meeting a ton of people and creating a database and nurturing that database and sending these people home tips and helping them as much as you can and reaching out.

Also constantly meeting new people to add. And you are working, and you are working, and all of that is done before you even get your first listing. And then you only get a listing here or there, and you are dependent on referrals and you’re constantly asking and following up.

And what you do get paid is amazing, but the amount of that, like first closing you have is not anywhere near the hours and the money that you’ve invested in this career.

But we get into online business and there’s tons of celebrity entrepreneurs and influencers who have convinced us that it’s super easy. Just follow me, and that you’re going to be making your money back right away. And also, you should be investing every dime you make right back into your business, otherwise, you’re asking way too much of your business.

Guys, I remember coaching people a couple of years ago, and I’m like, “oh my God, what an asshole for me to be like “you shouldn’t be expecting your business to pay your bills.” Also, why the hell did you get into business? Two things can be true at the same time.

So here is the hard truth … here is here is the hard, hard truth. This is hard. It is hard. This is hard work, and it is a lot of upfront work for a long-term payoff, and that payoff might take a while. That doesn’t mean though, that it can’t happen at any time. It also doesn’t mean that you suck if it does take a few years. That right there is so important.

To be able to hold space that your possibility is limitless and that we are going to coach you through strategies to overcome your specific circumstances, because they’re probably going to be very different than mine. And there’s strategies for that. And we can come up with business strategies that are more to your flavor as opposed to my flavor.

And it can happen in any moment. And also, it doesn’t mean that you suck if it does take. Guys, I made $19,000 in my fifth year of business. Actually, I share my income all the time. Have I shared my income lately? Around here. I have shared this in free trainings multiple times. I don’t know if I’ve ever shared it on the podcast.

So here, you guys want all the goods. Full disclosure, my very first year as a coach, I made around $3,000. Next year, $600 years after that, $1200. In my fourth year, I made $6,000. In my fifth year, I made that $19,000, and then in my sixth year, I surpassed the 100k line. I made $111,000. Six years. Six years.

Six, yeah. And my seventh year was two $270k and then three $320k, and then last year I made $403k, and this year I am not making 403k. I changed my business models. I pulled back on two launches that I ended up not having. There were some conscious choosing to do things very differently. I’m taking payments now. I never used to take payments before.

A lot has changed, so I’m actually going to make less this year. And I’ve decided it’s perfectly okay because it doesn’t mean that this isn’t good. I’m not good. This business isn’t good, and this isn’t a viable business. And really, when you look at 10 years in, shouldn’t I be a millionaire by now?

Shouldn’t I be a million dollar a year coach by now? I mean, that’s what’s being sold out there, right? It’s what’s being modeled for us based on the influencer culture and bro marketing. I should be, but I’m not. And also, I am okay with, and it’s not even that I’m okay with that. I still believe it can happen in any moment and I do not beat the crap out of myself, and I have my own back that I am where I am.

Because then I can problem solve from there, then I can get outta my head and I can serve you guys and I can get into your head and I can figure out, “OK, what is it that you’re struggling with on any given Tuesday, and how can I provide a solution to you for that thing before you ever hire me?” That’s very hard to do if you were looking at your business going, “this is all just too hard and it shouldn’t be this hard, and I should have more money in the bank and I don’t like this, and this isn’t OK.”

It’s very hard to do that for your clients when you are all up in that business with yourself. So, let’s talk about that. Hard work. It is hard work, but the work itself, like hold space that your possibility is limitless and that we are going to coach you through strategies to overcome your specific circumstances, because they’re probably going to be very different than mine. You have to meet a lot of people. You have to tell them and show them how you help them. You have to give them that help, and a lot of that help repeatedly for free over and over again. And you have to try a bunch of different ways, a bunch of different strategies that work with you and how you operate to find out what works with you and that lands with them.

Also, you have to decide to fail on purpose over and over and over. Yeah, like you have to be okay getting as many nos as humanly possible and not just be okay with it, but actually flip your brain, flip that switch in your head to be like, I’m going to go get as many NOs as humanly possible so that I can get better at understanding what my audience does and does not want.

That is your work. Trust me, there are plenty of major corporations who have failed miserably because they didn’t understand what the marketplace wanted. Hello, new Coke, mid-eighties. No one wanted that crap. We rejected it. So, they had to bring back the classic Coke. And here you are a non-businessperson thinking that you’re going to get out of this thing without flopping on your face, or that it’s going to be super-easy because it’s been modeled for you and it’s simply not.

It is simple: go fail every day for the next three months and report back what you learned. But that’s hard work because you have to keep getting creative and you have to keep listening to your people, and you have to keep interacting with them as best as you can with the parameters that you’re working with.

And all without making any of that failing or any of that misjudging or any of it mean that you suck and that this isn’t going to work for you. And I think that’s really what this comes down. What’s really at play here is the ability to hold space for the possibility that you are that 1%, the wildly successful that can have this happen for them at any moment, and never dim that light and never squash that dream without making it mean you suck.

If it does take years with taking the reality of your situation in and coaching strategies to allow for that. That it’s holding space for both things at the same time. So, this is hard work. It’s simple, but you’re going to work your ass off and you’re going to love it. You are in the business of inviting clients to engage with you every day.

And here’s what I promise you, I will coach the hell out of your brain. I will show you where it’s your thoughts, how your thoughts are providing an undercurrent of crap when you don’t clean them. How your words you send out into the world are dripping with your cosmic energy of this is too hard, it should be easier.

How? When that’s the undercurrent of your business. Every message you send out, even if the wording is on-point, is still kind of laden with something they can’t quite figure out and they can’t quite put their hands on it, but they know that there’s a weird vibe about it. Like, let’s get that cleaned up and let me coach you on that.

That is ongoing coaching. That’s not one and done coaching. That is coaching that I need regularly. I need that all of the time. This is why I have a business coach right now and I have a life coach right now and I have a CFO who’s a life coach and I have a website designer who is also a life coach, so that when I meet with these people regularly, they’re like, “um, this thing over here, that’s a little icky. What’s going on over there? Like you’re sending that out into the world. It’s stripping with like shitty energy, not your fabulous energy. We need to go clean that up,” right?

Yes. It’s your thoughts. Yes. Model what I have done and yes, it’s your thoughts. And also, we’re going to use my business acumen.

I am literally degreed in this, and this was my before career. Let’s talk strategy. Let’s find the obstacles, even the ones that are unique to you, and let’s solve for them. Let’s take in the realities of your market and assess demand for them. Let’s talk about your pricing. Let’s talk about what they’re getting for that pricing.

Is that a steal in their eyes? How can we make it a steal? How can we make that an offer that they can’t help but pass, like when they’re in the supermarket? Oh my gosh. Buy one, get 10 free. I’m in. You want them to be able to feel that, and how can we help create that demand for you? One thing for sure we’re not going to do is, we’re not going to recession-proof your business.

No. You’re just going to learn how to operate in the world as a business owner in the reality of the current market of record inflation, but also super low unemployment. So, are we actually in a recession, like even the experts can’t agree? And we’re going to go talk to your people who are worried about spending their money right now on themselves.

I’m not going to “positive thought” your way through that, we’re going to talk real strategies and how to approach them from a different place while honoring where they are. Like, I’m going to do that for you so you can do that for them. And we’re going to clean up your thinking so that your brain can find the solutions and the strategies.

It’s your thinking and it’s the business. It’s both. You need both. You get both with me. Are you in? Because I got a program for you no matter where you are on your business. Alright, my friends. Okay, so if you haven’t made at least $5,000 in the past six months, or you’re feeling really wishy-washy on how you’ve made it, and you really are struggling with belief, Free to Paid Coach is absolutely for you.

If you have already made that much money and your belief that six figures is absolutely going to happen, we are just totally not sure how we’re going to get there yet. Then path to 100k Mastermind is for you, and we’re about to enroll for that.

Free to Paid Coach is open all the time, Path to 100k, the next round starts in February, and if you’ve already made six figures, then I have a couple of options for working one-to-one, where we can work on just creating a strategy or create the strategy and actually implement it together.

All of that is available to you no matter where you. I’m going to hold you in the highest regard with so much love, and absolutely believe in the possibility that it’s just burning from inside your core and never, ever squash your dream and also coach you through the reality of your life, and help you create strategies for that reality.

And we’re going to bring actual business knowledge to the conversation. I know it’s novel, right? Let’s do this work. I am so excited. Let’s make 2023 the absolute most fantabulous year you’ve ever imagined. Let’s get started now.

Go ahead and send me an email at amy@amylatta.com and let me know where you are, which of those three places that you are, and we’ll figure out which program is best for you.

Okay? Let’s just make it happen. Personal invitation from me to reach out to me personally. I will answer those emails, amy@amylatta.com. Let’s go friends. I’m ready. And if you’re feeling it, if you’re vibing with this, I dropped some truth bombs that have like lit your soul on fire. If you just went, “oh no, she did not!” and you’re like, “oh no, I think she did!” then share this podcast episode with other coaches that need to hear it. Share it into your Instagram stories. Tag me at @iamamylatta. I can’t wait to see what you create in the world this week. Talk to you next week.

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If you know you can’t not do this life coaching thing, but believing that you can do it, handling rejection and remembering how to do all of those things shuts you down, the Free to Paid Coach Community is waiting for you. Find everything that you’re looking for inside. It’s only $1,000. Payments are available, and then you’re in forever.

Visit www.amylatta.com/ftpc to join us right now. See you inside. Let’s get paid, coach.

Thanks so much for listening to The Confident Coaches Podcast. I invite you to learn more. Come visit me at amylatta.com and until next week, let’s go do epic stuff.