Staying Solo

You know those low cost products all over your social media feeds making big promises?    You may like them, or you may find them annoying, but there's a very specific strategy around them. And a lot of those strategies are a big problem from my point of view. So I got curious and bought 9 of these products to analyze them.  In this episode and essay, I'm sharing my findings from that analysis I d...

When you think about your values, it's probably pretty easy to list what matters to us personally. But what about your biz? We've all done those exercises where we sit down and write out a mission or a vision statement, or define the values for our business. But all too often they just end up in a file folder and forgotten about while we carry on with getting our work done. How do we ensure the va...

Have you ever been talking to a potential client and they ask you what sort of results working with you will get them? I have, and honestly, it always gets my back up a little. Is it a valid question? Absolutely. But in the online world, "results" are all too often tied directly to cold hard cash. People are selling the promise of making big money if you work with them or buy their system, and tha...

You know what's annoying? How much people in the online space crap on service businesses. Celeb entrepreneurs are selling ways for us to get OUT of service businesses, with an understanding of an unspoken hierarchy where those who offer services are seen as less than those that focus on courses or programs.  This results in more and more people getting lured away from their service businesses and...

Have you ever heard someone say that there's no money in services? I have, and I strongly disagreed.  The service business model is one of the simplest around, and you can definitely make money — if you know what you're doing.  A service business doesn't have to be complicated, despite what you may have been told.  The reality is those celebrity entrepreneurs  and inexperienced coaches — who like...

Have you ever felt like things in your business aren't running the way they should? Like your services are out of whack or what you sell is a struggle to deliver? While every business is unique, the online business world often tries to tell us there is one way to do things — not accounting for any of the complexities we may need to consider when building our business model. And that sets us up to...

Have you ever had a coach try to jam you and your business into a cookie-cutter system or blueprint?  I have, and guess what? IT DIDN'T WORK!  While there's nothing wrong with looking to "experts" to provide some guidance, the reality is that these one-size-fits-all solutions are rarely going to yield the results we're looking for.  In this episode, we're looking at the problem with these blueprin...

Tell me if you've heard this one before… It's time to raise your prices. Raising your prices is one of the most common, yet potentially problematic pieces of advice in the online business world. Pricing is complex and layered, and the way it's taught typically only serves one person - the seller. The goal of so many of these strategies is to help the seller amass wealth, even if it does harm to th...

I'm back from my content sabbatical and I have news. **A NEW LIMITED SERIES PODCAST** Introducing: Trusted: Alternatives to the BS of Online Business. Are you tired of the BS?  ME TOO.  When it comes to how we market and sell our businesses, and what we buy, we've got choices.  The people marketing and selling to us just don't want us to know it.  In the new limited series podcast Trusted, we're g...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks.  __ Have you ever seen something online and felt like it looked awfully familia...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks.  __ Want to buy a Ferrari? Use a private jet? Stay in 5-star hotels?  According...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks.  ______________ The seven-figure income. The passive income dream. You have to...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks.  ___________ If you've ever looked closely at the tactics used in the online bu...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks. _____________ If you've been in the online biz world for a hot minute, you've p...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks.  ___________ Remember when the word expert next to someone's name actually mean...

If you're a fan of the BS-Free Service Business Show, check out Duped. Duped is a limited series podcast hosted by myself and Dr. Michelle Mazur, where we talk about the dark side of online business that you need to know about, and more importantly, how to protect yourself from falling prey to these tactics and tricks. _____ Have you noticed that "ethical" has become the buzzword-du-jour in the 20...

Hands up if you've ever been told you need to "hustle harder". Keep your hands up if reading makes you want to have a nap, because the idea of hustling is downright exhausting.  The relentless message around needing to hustle is contrary to why we ever started a business. What we really need and want is more *freedom* with our time.  That's why I invited my guest Becca Rich, a holistic time manage...

"I make 7 figures and you can too! All you need is my proven system!" Bet you've seen this sort of claim so many times you've lost count and it's totally eye roll worthy.  The online business world is full of people making BIG income claims. And as the years pass, these claims seem to continuously escalate. First it was 5 figures, then it was 6, and now we're at 7 or 8 figures.  But you know what?...

Have you ever had a question and thought "hmmm, I wish there was another biz owner I could ask about this"? Over the past year I've had a great time interacting and answering.  questions over on Instagram. And that's exactly why I decided to bring those questions to the podcast and share them all with you.  In this episode, I'm answering listener questions from how to deal with procrastination to...

Have you ever been given the advice that you need to work on your visibility as a business owner?  While on the surface this is true, one of the things that holds many people back is feeling that visibility = an extroverted, loud, in-your-face approach. Totally not my style, and probably not yours either.  And that's okay! Because we do, in fact, have alternatives.  In this episode, guest Mai-kee...

One of the most common questions I get asked is about how much people should be paying their employees or contractors. While the actual amount will always vary depending on the role, having a strategy for determining what rates to offer is critical. An important part of running an ethical online business is about NOT trying to get the largest amount of work for the least amount of money.  It's tim...

When you're trying to figure out who to trust online, you can't just look for something sleazy or sketchy as a sign that you should skip doing business with someone. It's much more complex and nuanced than looking at the FB ad with a guy on a yacht and thinking, next. It's much more complicated, and sometimes a scammer looks and acts like your BFF or your fave academic researcher. And their market...

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed in your biz that you're ready to light a match and burn the whole thing to the ground? 🔥 Been there, done that. The reality of being of a biz owner is that even when things seem to be going great, the tide can turn quickly. Even something awesome like bringing a client onboard can start to make you feel like you're falling apart at the seams if you don't actually...

Language is always evolving, and with that, so should our marketing and copywriting. Why? Because the words we choose matter. If we want to convey the message that our business is inclusive, diverse and equitable, then the language we use needs to reflect that. That's exactly why in this episode, Nailah King joins me to talk about inclusive copywriting including what it is, and how to get started...

How many times have you heard the advice that you need to focus on scaling your service business? While on the surface telling someone to work on growing their business doesn't seem like bad advice, the reality is that it's not always time for growth. Being profitable doesn't automatically mean you have to double or triple in size.   In this episode, we're going to dig into how to really build a s...