[Image Description: A 40 year old white woman stands in front of a dark background wearing all black, with one arm crossed over her body. She’s staring into the camera and has chest-length curled hair in jewel tones of pink, purple, and dark blue.]
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
My friends and clients know I have a deep love for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings stories. Some people have religious texts to guide their lives and I have these books instead. There’s so much about them that deeply resonates with me and brings me great comfort. Many of the words and themes from those stories inform my outlook on the world as well.
That quote is one of the most famous from the LOTR trilogy, and for a long time I thought it meant you should be intentional about how you use your limited lifetime. While I still believe that’s one interpretation, the last few years have me thinking about it differently.
I now believe it also means the time in history in which we find ourselves living. The era we have been born into. The various cultures we find ourselves immersed in through geography, upbringing, circumstance, and choice.
And as I think about what has happened over the past few years, both in America (where I live), and globally…I’ve found myself, on more than one occasion, wishing none of it had happened in my time.
A few weeks ago I intentionally allowed myself some time to grieve for things I feel like I’ve lost, even though I didn’t have them yet. Not treasures and trinkets but experiences. Experiences, accomplishments, and dreams that may no longer come to pass because of the time I find myself in. And also that in their place will be large swaths of discomfort, disappointment, and having to be present to increased suffering of all kinds.
I didn’t realize the death grip I had had on my goals and how weary I was making myself trying to chase after them; while on an increasingly hot planet, where there are new horrors each week fueled by an obsession for power and control. Especially since I’m very mindful of not pushing myself in business like I used to; burnout will teach you that.
I didn’t want to resign myself to this time. I wasn’t in denial about what was happening around me. It was more like I thought we’d have more of a runway before it got this bad. But instead of assuming with futility that I could outrun it a little longer, I embraced the fact that it’s already here.
And I allowed myself to sit in my grief and mourn. It was the medicine I needed that I’d been refusing to give myself. Afterward a funny thing happened…I felt hope.
Not hope that what was lost could ever be recovered, or that suddenly we had more time, but hope in the fact that I still had the power to choose how I wanted to proceed. Having choice is a gift.
I could throw my hands in the air and let change happen to me, or I could use my work and position as a leader to aid in changing the culture; primarily through the world of micro-businesses like my own, and the ones I serve with my work.
I could decide how to use this time and I could teach others in the process. Together we could shift the culture. Or at the very least we could try.
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Why micro-business? What even is that?
These are businesses like mine that are made up of an owner/operator and sometimes a small team; typically the team size is fewer than ten people. They are businesses that in many cases can be run successfully in under forty hours per week and are highly profitable.
I specifically focus on serving businesses that don’t offer a handmade product that has to be shipped, so there’s no need to procure raw materials that could experience shortages, find space to keep stock on hand, or worry about rising postage fees.
These businesses typically fall under the umbrella of “The World of Online Business,” which has grown rapidly in the last decade. Even more so in the last five(ish) years. This is partly due to the fact that the barrier of entry is very low. You need a computer, Internet access, and a digital product or virtual service that people want to purchase. (You also need sales skills, but more on that below.)
This means that if you used to teach quilt making out of your workshop in a small town, only being able to teach ten students at a time who had to travel to get to you…you could now bundle your knowledge into a digital course that anyone around the world could access for a price. This is massively impactful for the both entrepreneur and the buyer.
Doing business under this new paradigm opened up so many possibilities for people. It was, and is, exciting! Because a person no longer needs an MBA or thousands in start up costs to open a business. However, this has created its own set of problems.
These problems need to be addressed so that more online entrepreneurs can thrive instead of going broke or burning out. This is where the culture needs to shift.
Who am I? Why do I care?
Owners of online micro-businesses hire me to strategize growth plans via sales and marketing practices that are connection-centered and aligned with their strengths, vision, and values. My clients are people with valuable knowledge and skills who want to make a good living from their business, with plenty of time and energy leftover to enjoy their lives. Most have no desire to be millionaires, or at least aren’t in a hurry to get there.
They want their work time to feel fulfilling and they want to be well-compensated for it. They also want to feel in integrity with how they show up in their marketing, their sales conversations, and in their time with clients. They want businesses that feel relational instead of transactional. And they want to be able to easily fund their personal passions and philanthropic goals.
These online, micro-business owners are often so exhausted. Here’s why…
A lot of the advice aimed at them isn’t in alignment with their current skills & revenue level, their capacity, or where they want to go with their business. Plus, it sets up exaggerated expectations of what should be happening easily for them in terms of growth. When you mix all that with the ever-changing nature of social media platforms, it’s nearly impossible for these folks to keep up.
There’s not enough time or energy to keep up with the current culture as a micro-business, especially when they’re being asked to do what larger businesses have entire teams for.
Too much of what we’re told we “should do” is aimed at businesses with different goals and business models. It’s often those who are hyper-driven to hit a million dollars in revenue quickly, have larger teams, and a highly-scaled suite of offers. Meaning they can serve a lot of people all at once. These businesses typically use paid social media ads as part of their lead generation strategy, which means they are leveraging money rather than a large amount of personal time to make sales.
But for someone like a done-for-you web designer or copywriter this doesn’t make sense. For someone lacking the skills or funds to successfully run paid ads, it doesn’t make sense. For someone who wants $100,000-$250,000 in annual revenue (instead of a million), it doesn’t make sense.
It’s not that one is right and the other wrong, or that one is better or worse, it’s just that one way isn’t right for everyone. Plus, on the other side of this (the “low barrier to entry side”) is the fact that a lot of online marketers and mentors are selling incomplete solutions to help people avoid what they’re deeply uncomfortable with & hope to avoid having to do— selling.
If there was a way to have a highly-successful business that didn’t involve selling, and thus possible rejection, that could also work for everyone…someone would already be very rich from teaching it!
I love selling. I’m good at it. I teach it. And rejection still happens. It sucks.
I love marketing. I’m good at it. I teach it. Sometimes a strategy doesn’t work. Sometimes something that was working stops working. It sucks.
I love designing offers, intentional business models, and lower-effort/high-impact growth plans. I’m good at it. I teach it. Occasionally you start to deliver an offer you’re excited about and realize it’s not quite right and you’ll need to make adjustments. It sucks.
This is the reality of business. And there are many more realities too. Far more “realities” than “rules,” although people love to sell you their opinions as rules. (more on that in another post)
In order to shift the culture so that more people can succeed we need radical honesty about the skills required. Once those are learned, we’ll need to do the reps so they can become a natural practice. Micro-entrepreneurs are already excellent practitioners of their craft, and can become practitioners of regenerative business growth as well with the right training.
I’ve been teaching these skills without unnecessary fluff for years, and while I’m always honest, in many instances I haven’t been radically honest.
That’s because I’ve been afraid. Not mortally afraid, but afraid all the same. Afraid it would scare people off. Afraid it would ruffle feathers. Afraid it wouldn’t be received well and therefore wouldn’t matter anyway.
However, the time we’re living in requires radical honesty, blended with heaps of compassion.
Compassionate, radical honesty can change the culture of how we do business. With it we can experience both profitability and connected humanity. We can each have plenty of clients and embrace shared community without feelings of competitive scarcity. We can meet or exceed our monetary needs and desires while also having supportive schedules.
Because radical honesty allows us to be at choice. This is essential for culture shifting. Every intentional choice brings us closer to, or further from, the culture we want to be a part of as entrepreneurs.
When you’re clear about the life you want to design for yourself through the vehicle of your business, AND you know the full truth of what it’ll likely take to achieve that, it respects your personal agency to choose it, or choose differently.
But if you're only given wishful thinking and half truths you’re at the mercy of what you don’t know. And although we can never know everything or predict the future, there are simple and powerful ways we can put the odds of succeeding in our favor.
Radical honesty and true knowledge are the medicine that enable us to choose the most nourishing paths for ourselves.
Why now? What’s the vision? What’s the point?
Because the current culture is destroying us. I can’t and won’t pretend it’s not. And I refuse to perpetrate it.
Something interesting and grim has started happening with my clients since the end of 2021…
They are crumpling in under the weight of the pressure from their businesses and the larger world.
After two years of a global pandemic, an incredibly stressful Presidential election in the U.S. (which impacted my international clients too), violence from the state against Black and Brown bodies, erosions of civil and human rights, late-stage capitalism, and the war in Ukraine— it’s too much.
Couple that with shifting algorithms and marketing platforms (specifically social media) it’s simply become more than we can bear. We can’t pretend anymore that we’re ok. We’re at capacity for everything.
Instead of a beautiful, regenerative ecosystem where we’re thriving in community, each sharing our own unique gifts, we’ve been reduced to what feels like an over-farmed monoculture of uniformity. A depleted soil that needs far too many toxic inputs to produce anything anymore.
The current culture of online business is asking us to be creative 24/7, share it all with strangers on the internet, and LAUNCH LAUNCH LAUNCH in the hopes those strangers will pay us.
Fuck regenerative, this isn’t even remotely sustainable. It feels like exploitation, and what’s worse is we’re doing it to ourselves. Because we don’t know the alternatives.
But I do. This is my gift. And I plan to use it to make our shared culture of online business able to hold us better. I’m not sure if I’ll succeed, only time will tell.
Unequivocally this change needs to happen now and I think the world of entrepreneurship is a great place to start.
Because there’s a lot of culture-shifting power in the world of micro-business. While it comes with it’s own challenges, it’s liberating to be able to make a really good living without needing a college degree, renting a brick-and-mortar storefront, or managing staff. You can do it in half the time of a traditional job, with a schedule you can adjust to suit your needs, and it’s also an extremely viable option for those with disabilities, and/or those who are caregivers.
The micro-business community IS a community. And where there’s community, there’s culture. This means we get to decide what it looks like and how it operates. This gives me hope.
[Image Description: The sun sets behind a ridge of green hills casting a peach glow onto billowy clouds in the sky. In the distance is an old barn and grain silo. In the foreground is a small pond with cattails. The sky is reflected in the pond.]
The vision I have resides in this image. I took this picture recently while I traveled to enjoy time with a friend and give myself some space from my business to nurture the other things I love.
It feels reductive to go into all the nuance of emotion of seeing this pastoral scene in front of me, but it reminds me that in this time there is also so much goodness. It’s not all bleak. Not by a long shot.
There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” -Samwise Gamgee, The Two Towers (film)
The humans behind the businesses I work with are such deeply good people. They want to do right by their clients, their loved ones, and themselves. They care so much about all the pressing challenges of our time, which is why they are moved so much by them, to the point of exhaustion.
They don’t just want to make money for the sake of possessing it, they want it for what it can do. They are so generous with their time, talents, and treasure and want to leave a legacy of positive impact.
The world of entrepreneurship can make this possible. I know because I live it every day. I see it in my clients and business friends too. Sometimes it seems like we are making magic out of thin air as we trade knowledge and skills for currency with others who delightfully invest in us.
Then we invest that money back into what’s meaningful and joyful for us.
That’s why I believe this is a culture worthy of shifting. I don’t have a glossy, marketable vision like — “To help 100 business owners reach $100,000 in revenue in the next 3 years!,” because for whatever reason that doesn’t light me up.
Maybe it will be more clear over time, but right now it’s more nuanced that that.
To me it’s enjoying the peace of a pond at dusk with a friend and not much worry over how to feed my family.
For now, this is how I’m choosing to shift culture. This is how I’m choosing to spend my time— in this time.
My vision is also guiding you to yours.
In a world that’s increasingly uncertain, the only thing I’m certain of is that change is inevitable. Let’s shape some of it together, ok?