Transcript
Warm welcome to intro to authentic business.
I'm George Kao, and I have been exploring and teaching authentic business and doing it myself and helping clients do it since 2009.
And, really, the first couple of years, I was learning from the mainstream business experts and marketers, and I didn't really know what authentic business was.
I thought it was just hustle, stress, work as hard and as fast as I can, do whatever I need to to get people to sign up for for different things, charge as much as I can, whatever the market will bear.
Right?
That's pricing is supposed to be whatever the market will bear.
And after a couple years, I burned out from that kind of method.
And I said, I can't do this for the rest of my life, let alone the next 10 years even.
So I really, stopped all the methods I was doing.
Around 2012 was when my trans transition transformation started happening.
I didn't really complete until 2015.
But 2012, 2015, I started to, I say, try to be among the people.
Try to be humbler among the people truly with a heart of service.
I always had the heart of service, but I was I felt like I was trying to copy and emulate what I was supposed to do from the successful business people.
Right?
And it didn't it didn't align with my conscience.
It didn't fulfill my heart.
So in those years of transitioning transformation, I I asked myself, well, what is truly authentic for me to be in business?
What does that mean?
And I even asked if if this was my final year left to live, what would I do?
How would I serve?
What kind of heart would I display?
You know?
I wanted I realized at the end of that exploration, I wanted every day to be deeply meaningful.
And every piece of work I do, every moment of my work, I wanted it to be fulfilling.
Instead of I'm doing this thing so that I can experience the fulfillment of working with a client.
Have you ever had that thought?
I call that the means to an end fallacy.
That's not me calling it.
I'm sure philosophers have talked about it for 1000 of years.
Means to an end.
Let me just hustle and stress and get things done now so that I can do the meaningful, fulfilling work with clients, the deep and expansive and transformational work.
That's really what I'm here for.
All the tech stuff and the marketing stuff and the bookkeeping and the admin and the all the stuff along the way is just a necessary evil.
Have you ever considered that?
Why does it have to be?
You might I might drop dead the next moment, a necessary evil.
In the moment of doing a necessary evil, I might drop dead.
And so I'm like, no.
Every moment I gave myself that standard.
Every moment has to be meaningful because it can be.
And that's where I started developing this idea of authentic business and and what so for example, marketing our services, marketing our products and programs.
It doesn't have to be, let me use this really tricky method.
Let me use this method that doesn't quite sit right with me.
Let me use this method that I wouldn't do on a friend.
But I have to do it because that's how you get clients.
You see?
I have to do this manipulative sales funnel, which it feels weird to me to be in such a funnel, but I know I have to do it so that people will sign up.
And and once they sign up, then I can be ethical, authentic self and, you know, being with them.
I remember, being part of several spiritual teachers' email lists.
One of them was very famous.
And I joined the email list and within 2 weeks, I was aghast.
I was shocked by how I was being treated by the spiritual famous spiritual teacher, which I who I always had a had a good good, feeling for.
I always felt like they were genuinely in service, but being 2 weeks on their email list, I was questioning.
I'm like, oh, you see me as a as a number to work through your funnel.
I I I understand now.
This is not there's the the feeling was so scarcity driven and manipulative and wanting me to sign up for this and this and this urgently.
And I said, hello, spiritual teacher.
Are you why are you so unspiritual here in your marketing?
You think that marketing is not making a difference in the spiritual life of your audience?
It's making more of a difference.
You do understand marketing is actually making more of an impact on more people than the people who eventually the few who eventually work with you, you see.
So I said, no.
No.
No.
Marketing itself has to be spiritual.
Right?
Marketing itself has to be an expression of soulfulness instead of just, oh, I gotta do this thing so that finally I can do myself for work.
So this is where authentic business came in.
And authentic business, let me just define it briefly here, is to be selling something that has deep meaning for you.
I think that's probably true for most or everyone watching this already.
Right?
You many of you have created, maybe you have, had some peak experience, experiences in your life and you wanna bring that peak experience to the people as well, help them experience that.
Or maybe you've gotten some training on some particular modality of transformation that you're really passionate about.
You wanna bring that to to everybody as well.
Maybe you have helped yourself and some friends with certain issues, and now you wanna help others and make a livelihood, a true livelihood.
Why not?
Right?
So whatever you're selling is not like, whatever business you're in isn't just to make money.
It's an expression of your mission in this life.
Like, you you feel like you're called to something.
So the product and service itself is part of your calling.
I I really consider authentic business to be a a noble and modern pathway to discover and fulfill your calling.
Right?
Because what is our calling?
It's this intersection.
You imagine 2 circles.
1 is the, the the hunger of the world, the pains of the world, the yearnings of the world, right, on the one hand.
And the other hand is our own yearning and the other problems we have solved for ourselves and others.
The the goals we've achieved or are passionate and have been, blessed with some method of achieving.
That intersection between our passion and the world's hunger, as the old quote by Frederick Buechner says, that's where God calls you to.
The intersection between the world's hunger and your talents and your passions.
And that that's what authentic business is.
It's it's the process of unfolding that and clarifying that.
And so it starts off with this product or service that that you are deeply fulfilled to to deliver.
And then we also need to have, marketing of our products and services so people can be aware of it and find resonance with our energy signature.
Right?
Because you have a unique energy signature, and there are a bunch of people in the world who when they discover your energy, say, where have you been?
I've been I've been wanting I I feel connected to you, however you are, the way everything, the way your face is shaped, the way your your voice sounds, the way you write, the way that you think about ideas, the way that you are present on video or in in on a Zoom call or in your writing or in your podcast.
Your energy signature is uniquely resonant with a bunch of people in the world, and marketing, authentic marketing, is the process of 2 things.
1, allowing you to giving the opportunity to explore what that energy signature is in writing, on video, in a podcast format, in interviews with other peep whatever it is, different ways of doing marketing is, you know, part of it is the opportunity to explore your energy signature.
Marketing is not just a means to an end.
I gotta do this clever thing, clever copywriting, great design so that people can then do fulfilling work for me.
Again, remember the means to an end fallacy.
I think the means to an end fallacy is the beginning of evil or beginning of wrongdoing at the very least.
Whenever you do means to an end.
Like, oh, I'm doing this.
Let me just get this over with so that I can do something that's right and fulfilling and and mission driven or purpose driven.
No.
No.
No.
This very thing we're doing called marketing can be deeply meaningful, purpose driven.
And so what what is authentic marketing?
It's it's this intersection between exploring yourself and your energy signature and serving the market.
Right?
Serving a bunch of people who may never buy from you.
And this is important as a as a framework to understand that good if marketing is truly impactful and successful, it actually reaches a lot more right?
Now think about it.
What's if marketing is successful, does it reach more people or fewer people?
Probably more people.
Right?
If marketing is successful, does it deeply impact people or shallowly impact people?
Probably deeply impact.
So the most successful marketing is that which reaches the most people in the deepest way.
Now do you think that successful marketing also means everybody who was reached supposed to sign up and work with you?
That's called tyranny.
That's called control.
That's called no.
No.
No.
You have to sign up for this thing because I'm so clever and so persuasive in my copywriting.
You if you don't sign up, either something's wrong with you or something's wrong with me.
This is this is the mainstream way of looking at marketing, and it's terrible because it's always pointing the blame or fault as either the audience is dumb or I am something's wrong with me.
No.
Not not neither.
Can we just look at it as exploration and service?
Right?
Can we just look at it as I'm exploring myself publicly, public journaling, at the same time, I'm also serving a bunch of people who might never buy from me, actually, but some of them will.
Some of them needed to read this article, to watch this video, to hear this interview of mine, to, you know, see this image or whatever, and then they got impacted.
And then that planted a seed, and then when the time is right, they come and work with me.
And, plus, I'm out there.
Right?
Authentic marketing.
I'm out there consistently so that I'm top of mind, so that when they're ready to work with me, I'm still there.
I'm yet again serving them.
You know?
Right?
So that's part of authentic business is authentic marketing.
Does that make sense?
And then, the third part of authentic business is you're consistently meeting reasonable financial goals rather than hype and fantasy.
How many of you or how many of you know somebody, let's say, who says, start of the year, I'm making $300 a month right now on my business.
By the end of the year, I'm gonna make $10,000 a month.
And any of you, know a friend like that?
Okay.
How did they get that number?
From some marketer, some business expert who says, oh, you're not your business ain't successful until you're you're 6 figures or 7 figures or or however many figures.
Right?
Reasonable financial goals.
What what does that mean?
Well, George, I I don't wanna I don't wanna set a low bar for myself because law of attraction, I might attract a law a small business and and and I want a big business.
Alright?
I I'm if I if I say right now, my 300 $500 a month, by the end of the year, I wanna be at $3,000 a month, That's that's that's, not inspiring and that's going to be, you know, sometimes I'm gonna attract a lower vibe.
Nonsense.
Nonsense.
I have been I have been using this authentic kind of financial, setting for over 10 years, and guess what happens?
Here's here's what happens.
If you set a reasonable deadline or goal for yourself to say right now, I'm at $300 a month, and in the next quarter, I'm gonna aim for $700 a month or $500 a month or whatever.
You know what happens?
And you say, okay.
I I've got this goal, and I'm clear at what I'm gonna need to do that's likely to lead to the goal.
You might reach that goal well before your original timeline.
And you know what happens when you reach a goal even ahead of the timeline?
Your self efficacy grows.
Now I want you to look this up.
Feel free to look this up on Google or however you find information these days.
Self efficacy.
The problem with with a lot of us solpreneurs is we're so idealistic, so visionary that we set this large financial goal within a timeline that is unreasonable.
And then when we don't reach it, guess what happens?
Our self efficacy decreases.
It weakens the muscle of our self efficacy.
I want you to increase it all the time, and I'm always surprising myself.
So for example, I I set the I set the goal of having a 100 sign ups for this webinar as of this morning in my 200.
I feel darn good about myself.
There's no law of attraction saying if I put a 100 out there, I will only get 80.
That's nonsense.
No.
You you you you reality happens through causes.
Causes happens through your action in your business, creates certain muscles or strengthening certain muscles, creates certain insight.
You use those insights to create better systems.
Those systems create better muscles, and on and on, and creates better results.
Okay?
So just be careful of your woo.
I'm woo woo too, but don't don't be don't be woo woo with your financial numbers.
Okay?
Reasonable financial metrics, increasing your self efficacy.
That's what I want to see.
Okay.
And then, last thing about, authentic business is the way we work every single day is joyfully productive.
Every moment can be a moment of meaningfulness and fulfillment, not a means to an end for the next month.
So four things about authentic business.
A meaningful product and service, you probably already have that.
Authentic marketing so that you are genuinely exploring yourself and serving the world no matter if they buy or not.
Because ultimately, of course, people are gonna buy the more people you reach.
Okay?
That's second, authentic marketing.
3rd is reasonable financial goals and timelines that increase your self efficacy rather than decrease it.
And finally, 4th, every moment of joyful productivity practice.
Alright.
So that's authentic business.
Thanks for coming to the webinar.
I hope you had a great time.
No.
We will keep going in the next segment where we'll talk about, we'll we'll get to the planning of a year.
How do we plan a plan a year?
So thanks for, thanks for being here.
I hope this was at least interesting, if not if not, inspiring and framework shifting for your thoughts about business.
And then, I look forward to seeing your comments below.
Let's move on from here.
By the way, those who are, watching this who maybe can't comment below, you might need to log in or make sure you log in with the correct account, then you'll be able to comment below.
Thanks.
BizPlan 2025
Welcome!
Module 1 -- Intro to Authentic Business
Q&A
Module 2 -- Market Discovery + Yearly Plan
Module 3 -- Rhythm of Gentle Launches
Module 4 -- Metrics: "You improve what you measure."
Principles of Authentic Business
Updated Oct 23, 2024
The products/services are deeply meaningful to you, whether you are creating your own, or selling others’ products.
How you do marketing feels like a genuine exploration of your potential as well as an act of service towards your audience. For example you create content for mental fitness and as a ministry to your audience. Read more.
Your business is consistently meeting reasonable financial goals (rather than hype and fantasy). A “lower” near-term financial target doesn’t mean you’ll attract less – consistently surpass your goals and you’ll increase self-efficacy.
Rather than hustle and stress, you operate your business from a joyfully productive mode of working. Read more.
If you cannot read the comments below nor add yours, make sure you're logged into this course (see the upper right) or enroll in the course here.
___MESSAGE___
___MESSAGE___