Your Power as a Business Owner: From Pressure to Empowerment in Digital Entrepreneurship

Tracie: 00:00:05

Hello, everyone, Tracie here, your resident business rebel, and

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you're listening to cocktails coffee

and conversations podcast, the show that

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lets true stories and insider secrets

of digital entrepreneur life unfold.

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Our business world is growing and as

an online business coach and digital

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product creator, I believe you didn't

become an entrepreneur to grin and

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bear your way through business.

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So I'll be your guide.

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As we drop in on coaching calls.

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Have intimate sit downs with online

personalities you love and discuss

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ideas, opportunities, and strategies

circulating our online world.

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So pop in your earbuds, tap,

follow, and join me as I demystify

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this thing called business.

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Hello, hello.

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Welcome to Cocktails,

Coffee and Conversations.

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I am Tracie, your host, who is

flying solo for this episode.

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In other episodes, you'll hear me

interview amazing online business owners

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and friends, or hash out some business

strategies and advice with fellow coaches.

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But when I'm flying solo, I'll be

answering your questions and sharing

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some inside business knowledge for

creating a sustainable business.

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And since we're getting to know each

other, I wanted to start with a message

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that I hope you'll find uplifting and

a way that you can see a path to a

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deeper impact pretty quick, because

there there's a lot about doing

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business that many people don't like.

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Right.

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Including that big hairy word selling

so much so that people will run

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themselves out of business to not

have to do this act effectively.

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And why?

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Because centuries of bad examples and

personal experiences that have left

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many thinking and conducting business

with a sign that says, I want to do this

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work, but don't ask me to charge you.

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You know, I don't want to

be labeled old business.

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I don't want online bro

marketing stigma either.

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I want to be out there doing good.

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I want to do what I love.

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I want to make the life I imagine,

but self promoting or using my face

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or using my voice or having that,

that need to do that, that ask.

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It's just a bit too much.

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Can't I do the work that I want and

money just magically flows to me.

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So what happens when, when we have

this kind of tension, you know, that

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this, this feel where we don't want

to be all these horrible examples.

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But at the same time, we

do want to make some money.

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We do want to make our life's work

out there and available to people and,

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you know, bring some change in and

do some good and bring our love of

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something out there to the world, right?

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What happens?

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Well, often is that

people will swing wildly.

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in the other direction, all in this

effort to like, take back their power.

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They attach concepts like worth or serving

or well, look, calling it, taking back

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their power to the act of assigning

prices and putting up sale signs to the

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point that like a 30 minute coaching

call ends up costing five figures.

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And people get exhausted with

the show that they feel like they

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have to put on to say, it's okay.

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It's okay to sell.

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It's okay to have a business.

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It's okay.

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It's okay.

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And then they just want to, you

know, put it all away and, and

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start all over again somewhere else

because they're absolutely exhausted.

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It's one pendulum swing to the next.

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And I will say that none of that

was in any sort of judgment, but

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that was rather an observation.

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And an understanding that those

actions, those practices, that, that

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one pendulum swing to the next, those

places that we're coming from is trying.

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And that, that is okay.

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A beautiful part of entrepreneurship

is our ability to experiment.

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Sure, it feels like we have

extremely high stakes, right?

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Because we're having to have

families and have lives and have

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mortgages and, you know, eat.

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But these things in life are

not small that we're trying to

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accomplish with our business.

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Let alone that the grander

concepts that we're after.

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Yeah.

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That it's, it's very, very real, very

truthful, makes perfect sense that

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this feels like it's high stakes.

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are our businesses and we get

to adjust elements of them until

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we find our Goldilocks fit.

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So we can get off that pendulum and

away from, you know, those, those

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gender based business labels as well

while we're at it by looking at where

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our power does lie with our business

and what we are saying and what we can

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say with our business on a daily basis.

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without Instagram lives being required.

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And you might think like, wait, what

on earth are you talking about Tracie?

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Like how is this even possible?

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And it all comes back to the, these

elements that what we choose to engage

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in and create is what creates systems.

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And I don't just mean the ones in

our business, you know, that our VA

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is like begging you like, please,

for the love of God, make us SOP.

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Please make an SOP.

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I don't mean those kinds of systems.

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I mean the systems that we rile

against and curse the man for

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having spawned since centuries ago.

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You know, the ones that feel oppressive

and that take advantage of people and

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that very rightly need to be gone, right?

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Those kind, the systems with a capital S.

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And you might've heard

this concept as a consumer.

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It's been around for a very long

time, but especially with, you know,

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with the internet, you often hear

it called voting with your wallet.

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The idea that you have a say in

what gets made, but also in business

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practices because of who you back

through your purchasing power.

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Yeah.

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So to choose the businesses,

to choose the products that

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align with what you stand for.

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Now, of course, like anything,

especially anything online, there's

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controversy over that efficacy.

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But what I'm talking about here

is that business side of it.

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And as a business owner, you are

creating things to sell as well

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as buying from other businesses.

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So you're not just a consumer,

but as a business and often as

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a partner with other businesses,

this concept is now a hundred fold.

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You have a hell of a lot of power.

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Yes, you, the one listening right now

to change this system with a capital

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S to the kind that you envision, the

thing that you want different for

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not just the next generation or five

generations from now, but the one that

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we're currently in right now, you know,

there's already been a lot of change and

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a lot of unfolding and a lot of undoing

that's just happened in the last five

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years, last 10, last 15, you know, think

about what it was like when you were in

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elementary school and middle school, pre

COVID, post COVID, all the things, right?

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But there's still a lot of

other things that can happen.

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And there's a lot of things that maybe

you personally feel very strongly for.

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And this is the same in

our world of business.

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So right now, we're going to look

at this as this business owner.

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And especially because we live and breathe

in this online world and this online

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world that people are seeing, even if

they don't do it, what we do, right?

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So I work with people that own

businesses, but you might not.

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The people who buy from you might

be people that have completely

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different jobs or no jobs at all,

or all the other things in between.

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So our, our ripple effect

is fast and fast and wide.

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And we can use that in a positive way by

paying attention and consciously Making

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changes by what we do that we want to see.

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So if you don't like the way selling

is done, change how you do your own

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sales and how you engage with the people

who are doing sales, like the other

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businesses that you're working with.

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right?

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So like, that's kind of like

a top line option right there.

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It's like, if, if you don't like a

certain tactic, don't use that tactic.

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And that's what I mean when I talk

about, um, how that can feel, Oh, I

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don't know, but if this is supposed

to be this tactic that works really

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well, and of course I want my business

to succeed, then what do I do?

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What do I do?

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And that's where we want to break

that down into those base elements

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and think, okay, well, hang on.

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What is the purpose of this?

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And what are my other options?

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Yeah.

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And I'll save that for

a different episode.

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We always have that choice.

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We always have that power and we

don't have to give into like those

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different kinds of emotional pressures.

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So if you don't like the type of

offers out there, if you don't like

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the way people are being spoken to or

spoken about, if you don't like the

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way things are being interacted with

or that people are being interacted

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with, you don't have to emulate that.

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You don't have to bring that

into your business on accident.

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So take an audit of how you are

doing the different pieces into

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your business to make sure that you

haven't accidentally copy and pasted

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those behaviors into yours, right?

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Because you were following somebody

else's model or template or, you know,

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trying to make it work for you, right?

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Cause again, like we feel this

pressure and it's like, Oh, okay.

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They're saying this model work.

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They're saying that this tactic

work, they're saying this phrasing

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worked and I want mine to work.

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I want to make sure mine gets out there.

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So let me do the same thing.

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But then whenever we see that

practice, like out in the wild, when

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you see it emulated, it makes us

kind of go, ew, I don't like that.

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But what we don't realize, what we kind of

forget is that, oh, wait, we accidentally

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use that on one of our pages too.

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Or, oh, wait, did I, did I do

that over, uh oh, wait a minute.

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Yeah.

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So we have to just ever

so often, we got it.

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We got to kind of step back and

we have to, to reflect on that.

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And, and I'm going to give you a nice

little three step formula to follow that.

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Okay.

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Cause we have to make sure that

we didn't accidentally bring

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those behaviors into our business.

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We have to clean up our stuff.

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Change who we engage with, and definitely

who we affiliate with, partner with,

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share stages with, you know, any

of those kinds of places, right?

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Because there's so much reflection in

communities, in our societies, of how

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we treat people, what we think about

people, that quote unquote value that

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we put on people, that is reflected in

selling and how business is conducted.

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Even to the point of like,

who's allowed to buy something?

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Who's marketed to?

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You know, how things are said, what's

even considered, all of that is a

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reflection of what, of what people

think about other communities.

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And, you know, we don't

always think about that.

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Sometimes like it's not even a

concept that ever entered into

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our thoughts and other times it's

like, Whoa, that feels so heavy.

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I don't even know what to do about that.

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Right.

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And, and again, like, that's okay.

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It's okay if you didn't think

about that originally, but whenever

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you're looking at these things,

you're like, Oh, I don't like this.

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I want to do something about it.

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Well, this is your escape hatch.

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This is the way to say, Oh,

here's something I can do is if

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you truly want that change, if

you want that gross to go away.

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As these business owners, we have

that right to do that because it's

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not some, you know, big corporation

somewhere, you know, in, in,

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in New York or London or Tokyo.

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It's not some like massive conglomeration

that has this kind of power anymore.

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It's not even like those ad companies on

Madison Avenue, like it was a century ago.

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It's those of us with online

businesses that now make these changes.

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Cause we're the ones that

are all over social media.

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We're the ones that are buying the

Facebook ads, the Instagram ads that are

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making the posts that are on videos that

are doing viral things on Tik Tok that

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are all over YouTube that are on podcasts.

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You know, we have more

control, more impact.

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We make more waves, more ripples than

any of those massive companies do now.

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So we can't just accidentally copy and

paste other people's strategies into

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our business if we want to consciously

create societal changes, right?

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And again, that's like.

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from that large kind of concept all

the way down to these small ones.

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Yeah.

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From the overall society impact to

our communities, to these different

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little elements that we can think of.

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So what can you actually do today?

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Well, we can observe, we

can analyze, and we can act.

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So observe.

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Today, as you're going about your

normal work and life, notice the ads,

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notice the sales messages, the captions,

the videos, all the messages that are

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coming from businesses that are taking

up space online, including your own.

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As you notice these messages, observe

any sort of gut reaction that you

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might be having, any sort of like

visceral feels that you've got.

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When you see something you don't like,

whether that's in your business or someone

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else's, if you hear something, take

screenshots, make notes, anything that

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will help you personally remember it.

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Okay.

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But then leave it there

because what we'll do later.

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Once you're out of kind of that, that

emotional state, once you're out of

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that, um, body reaction, that visceral

reaction, and definitely if you're not

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in the middle of like planning your own

launch or like in the middle of this,

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this kind of nerve wracking pitch prep.

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But instead when you're in a place

where you can have some kind of

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outward observation, we're going to

look back at those screenshots, at

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those notes, at whatever that you

used to remember, we're going to do

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step two, which is to analyze it.

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So figure out, go like bit by bit.

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What was, or was not working that

kind of gave you that, that reaction?

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Was it the images, the phrases,

the layout, the color choices?

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Was it like an overall feel?

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Did it feel forced or desperate?

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Anything at all that made

you kind of squint your face?

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Note it.

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If it was your own work, go back and

think about ways to fix it, right?

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Were there other ways that

you could have said something?

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Was there other image choices that maybe

would have reflected what you were trying

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to accomplish in a more accurate way or

in a more uplifting way, or in something

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that actually felt like it was a little

bit closer to where your most recent buyer

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would actually be versus some, you know,

super far off kind of transformation.

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Transcribed Right?

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If it was someone else's work, then

use it as an example of what you don't

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want to bring into your business.

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Almost like an anti swipe file, you know?

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So that way, anytime you are making

copy, you know, you're making sales

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pages, you're making social media

posts, you're making anything, any sort

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of content, any sort of sales stuff,

then it's like, okay, I love these

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things, but I don't want these things.

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We don't want to accidentally

bring these into our business.

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Yeah.

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And you can do this exact same process.

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You can observe, you can analyze, and

you can act for things that you do like,

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the things that you do want to emulate

that do make you feel excited, that

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make you feel expansive for all of the

good feels that you want to bring into

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your business and your community, right?

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Cause as we observe and act more

and more things will change.

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And guess what?

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The high pressure tactics, all

those things that made you feel

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gross and like, I can't sell, I

can't put my message out there.

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I can't be out there.

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Like all of that stuff will no longer be

the recommended way to do things because

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they won't have worked anymore because

we won't have interacted with them.

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If we don't interact with these

things and the conversions won't

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be there, they will have tanked and

then something else will have tried.

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Right?

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That is that direct cause and effect.

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If something makes you feel gross, if

you're like, Oh, I feel desperately like I

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really need this product, but I don't like

the way they're talking to me, walk away.

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And then that tactic

won't be tried anymore.

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If you're like, Oh my gosh, I

can't believe that they're using

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this message to sell this thing.

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Oh, but I'm going to buy it

anyway because I really want it.

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Well, then they are going to

think that that message is the

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reason why somebody bought it.

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Right?

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Do you see that?

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It's the same thing in

our own business, right?

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Whenever we're doing those, those,

you know, post launch analysis,

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anytime that we're looking at our

conversion numbers, we're having to.

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match up our data any way that we can.

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Yeah.

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Because we don't know, you know, person

by person, exactly what happened for

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the most part, unless it really is

high touch and you can ask every single

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one of them, then, you know, it's

impossible to know, especially with, um,

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you know, any sort of the high volume

kind of things that are out there.

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So what do we do?

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Well, we look at our funnel data.

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We look at the things

that people clicked on.

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We looked at exactly which page, which

button, which form did they fill out?

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You know, at what timing, what was going

on in this, which post, which email?

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And then we, we assume then, that that

was the message that brought them in.

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So if you don't like the message,

don't let that one be the one that

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brings you in to someone's offer.

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Yeah?

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That works the same way

handed in for ourselves.

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: 00:17:02

as the sellers and as the buyers.

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That's how we can squash the

things that we don't like is

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by not allowing them to work.

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: 00:17:12

Right?

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Cause if you leave this kind of thing to

other people, then the changes that get

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made may not be the ones that you want.

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: 00:17:20

Right?

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: 00:17:20

And I think we've all seen that

in our own lives over and over

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again on, on many different levels.

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And this is the way that, that

you can have this, this choice.

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: 00:17:28

And again, this exact

same kind of process.

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I'm breaking this down for how to

use this in your online business.

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But it's the same kind of

thing that you can bring into

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other parts of the community.

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They can bring into other

parts of society as a whole.

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Of course, there are

other layers to this idea.

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And of course there's other examples,

but I want to leave you with something

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that's very tangible with this observe,

analyze, and act exercise today.

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: 00:17:52

And if you want to talk more about this,

please tell me, you know, if you want to

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talk about this idea or really anything

else, let me know, leave a comment or go

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: 00:18:00

to Tracie Patterson dot com slash AMA.

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: 00:18:03

And I would love to hear from

you until the next episode,

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: 00:18:07

be well and have some fun.