Episode notes
I wasn’t planning to record this episode.
Then something happened in the coaching industry, everyone started talking about it, and I spent basically the entire weekend thinking about it.
Not because I wanted to add another opinion to the pile. Actually, that was part of the problem.
I’m a very opinionated person. I’ve been fired twice for being too outspoken. I created a fucking podcast called Dangerously Expressed.
And yet, when it comes to publicly sharing my opinions about things happening in my own industry, I still hesitate.
I don’t want to create drama for attention. I don’t want to tear another woman down. And I definitely don’t want to form an opinion when I don’t know the whole story.
But watching this particular situation unfold brought up a lot for me.
It reminded me of what 15 years in corporate sales taught me about what happens after someone buys.
In medical device sales, getting the client was never the end. If that client needed you during a surgery, you fucking showed up. The relationship, service and care afterwards mattered enormously.
And sometimes I look at online business and wonder whether we’ve become so obsessed with marketing, selling and recurring revenue that we’ve forgotten that part.
It also brought back some of my own experiences investing in coaching spaces where, looking back, I wasn’t the right client.
There was one space in particular where I was a genuine beginner. I told the coach that. I was accepted anyway, and once I was inside, it became very obvious that my questions and problems weren’t at the level the space was designed for.
I can own my part in that. I should have asked more questions before buying.
I also think the person selling has a responsibility to ask whether someone should actually be in the room.
That’s the conversation I wanted to have here.
And somewhere along the way, it became a conversation about something else too: how fucking difficult it can still be to take a stand publicly, even when you consider yourself an outspoken person.
Maybe being dangerously expressed isn’t saying something because you know everyone around you is going to clap.
Maybe some of the real work begins when you’re not entirely sure what people are going to think.
What You’ll Learn
- Why client experience matters just as much to me as making the sale
- What my corporate sales career taught me about keeping clients in your world
- What I learned from investing in coaching spaces that weren’t right for me
- Why I think discernment belongs on both sides of a sale
- Why publicly taking a stand still feels uncomfortable for me
- How I’m thinking about sharing strong opinions without contributing to online drama