How to Anti Bro Your Business in 3 Steps

Speaker 1 (00:02):

Hey, and welcome to today's episode. Thank you so much for being here for tuning in and for digging into this topic with me. So in our last episode, we, in episode 40, we dove into bro marketing. We have been talking about brand marketing for a long time, truthfully. It's why we're all here. This is what led to the entrepreneurial Outlaws podcast and the whole brand itself, but it's really time for us to start taking action. And you've probably been taking action for some time. Maybe you're not even aware of the action you've been taking, but every time you challenge the status quo, just a little bit in business, every time you decide to zig, when someone else wants you to zag every time you say no, when you feel like you should do something, or every time you decide to do things on your times, you are challenging the status quo of online business.

Speaker 1 (00:55):

You are anti burrowing your business. Now last week, as I said, in last episode, we talked all about bro marketing. We got into the way I'm defining bro marketing. We talked about some of the other definitions I found, but also we looked at some of the ways in which those definitions don't quite touch on the privilege and the really systemic problems that come through brand marketing. And one of the biggest challenges I see when we talk about brand marketing is that we have to talk about privilege. And we also have to look at the fact that so much of it is like this luxury lifestyle is glorification of what success looks like. It really is all about visuals. It really is all about, look, look at how much money I have and the cow amazing that says, and at the time of recording this, we have just had a few billionaires going into space.

Speaker 1 (01:45):

And I think that has continued to really bring to the forefront. The fact that bro marketing really is just a kind of subsidiary of that, right? Bro marketing is just a subset of this kind of quote boys' club, all these billionaires who can just decide to go to space because they have enough money to when you know, the world is like really challenged right now. And, and things are not great. Still, even though many of us are experiencing some kind of normality. So we've been talking about bro marketing for a long time. It's why we're all here. It is how this podcast got started, but it is time to take action. And for a long time, now I have been trying to figure out how to bring you incredible resources, right? Incredible resources. It's going to help you challenge this broad marketing, but also how to make it really simple, right?

Speaker 1 (02:40):

How to make it really simple and how to also outlawed it a little bit myself. Because whenever I hear that voice in my head going, you need to do this. You don't have this. And this is usually like, you don't have an email funnel. You don't have a lead magnet. These are things that I agree. We need to have eyes on our work. Of course we do. We need to make money. We are businesses. But at the end of the day, I'm always going to make sure that I look at okay, is this something I genuinely believe? Is this something I really want? And where do I stand with this? And we're going to get into a bit of that in today's episode. But when I thought about bringing you free resources that are going to help you to anti-war your business. Well, I decided that I wanted to really give you choice.

Speaker 1 (03:21):

And I wanted to create a kind of like a portal, a place where you could come and you could choose, right? You could come and you could take a look and you could get cozy. It's really unlike. Well, it is a library. So it's called the anti bro marketing resource library, but we are just going to call it the ABM library for now for short. So the ABM library is a free resource portal. It's a place that you can come to. You can access the free resource resources that are currently that. And then as time goes on, we may add additional resources. We may have trainings and workshops, various different things. But the key part of this is that they are free and you can come and you can take what you need. This is something as a phrase I've really, really leaned into this year, my business, I don't want to limit your choice.

Speaker 1 (04:11):

I know that there is a lot of talk of oneness in business, right? Have one funnel, one freebie, one product. And I get that and it works for some people and for some people that works really, really well. And I understand the theory, but I'm definitely a multi-passionate. I'm definitely somebody who gets bored very easily. And I want to have choice and I don't want to take away your choice so you can come and take exactly what you need in that moment. For example, if you are really needing some journaling support and some journaling prompts, you can come to the library and you can access a couple of resources that are going to help you. There's going to be the first 30 pages of the outdoor journal. So if you don't have a copy of the outdoor journal, this is like a little test drive. It gives you the first 30 pages principle that you have to, you know, download and print, but you can access this access, those journal prompts. And they're going to help you to really dig into some of the mindset stuff behind why auntie, sorry, why bro marketing. It really impacts our mental energy and how it impacts our businesses. Okay. Now this is the key part of the ABM library is broken down into three sections. So when you sign up, you'll go into like the portal, the library, and you'll see these three sections there.

Speaker 1 (06:20):

And these three sections are strategy spirituality. And self-inquiry, this is the intersection, the entrepreneurial intersection of all the work that we do inside of entrepreneurial outdoors. So whether you, whether you buy one of our journals or you listen to this podcast or you join the outlook outlook collective, or even just, you know, Logan to the IBM library and unlikeable of goodness, that's going to be in there. You will find that this is the intersection that we work

Speaker 2 (07:16):

[Inaudible].

Speaker 1 (07:37):

And the reason this intersection is so crucial as we navigate this walk and [inaudible] businesses is because this is where the magic happens, right? This is where we see these really subtle shifts in the way we approach our businesses and the way we approach consumerism. And in the way we approach our mindset and able to really tap into our intuition and run intuitively businesses that focus on value-driven success versus success that is focused on what other people are doing, right? This is the real place where these three things happen. And we're going to get into that in today's episode, I'm going to break that down for you, but that is what you'll find inside of the ABM library. And if you go to the landing page, which is Melanie nights.com forward slash free resources, we're going to link to that in the show notes. But if you had that, you'll see that there was a breakdown, a list, and a visual of all the different resources that are in the library.

Speaker 1 (08:32):

You may, at some point have actually downloaded one of these resources before they've all had a little spring, clean spruce up and they all are extra value packs. Now we've changed some of the updated and evolved some of the information. So even if you have one or two of these resources previously, you'll still get extra value for me is because we've updated the resources over the last few. So how do you get access? Okay. So the first thing is, as I said, you can go to Melanie nights.com forward slash free resources. Once you go there, you'll see all the information you sign up and you'll get a password and you can log into the portal. As I said, it's completely free when you log in, you'll have access to everything that's in that. And we will obviously update you as we add new resources to the portal.

Speaker 1 (09:19):

So this is not one of those things where it's like, you only get one thing or you don't get access to anything over time. We're going to be adding other resources to the portal over the next few months as well. And of course, there's going to be breaks. We don't add anything, but we will keep you updated as that happens. And when you access that portal, you're also going to get access to additional resources via email, which will help you to really deep dive into each of these three topics. So this is going to be really kind of expensive. And it's going to really help you to build this, this anti pro-business that you really, really want. And it's why you're here. Right? So today we are going to explore how we continue to challenge the status quo of online business and reduce the impact of brand marketing on our industries and on our mental energy, because honestly it's gonna still be that we cannot remove it completely because people choose to market their businesses in that way. And there's so many unregulated industries online, but the reality is that we can do all pop. So you today are listening to episode number 41, let's dive in.

Speaker 1 (10:47):

Okay. Outlaws. So, as I said a little bit earlier, I talked about that intersection, that entrepreneurial intersection, where we work here in entrepreneurial Outlaws. Okay. Which is strategy spirituality. And self-inquiry now there was a time where I was like Uber strategy focused. Okay. For the most part of my business, the beginning, that was all I focused on. I really, it was like, but if I work hard, people will pay me more money and why am I not doing I'm I'm a hard worker. Why are people not just, you know, wanting to work with me? And I discovered that that wasn't going to cut it in the online space. It really wasn't because there was so many layers to the things that we have to do as entrepreneurs, as solo preneurs, as business owners. [inaudible]

Speaker 1 (12:05):

There are so many things that we do. There are so many tasks that we take on. And truthfully, I don't know that when I started my business, I truly understood the amount of different hats that I would be wearing. And I just thought that if I did all the things that it would just kind of walk out and that didn't happen. And over the top, over the years, I really leaned into possible development. Right? I think every entrepreneur will agree entrepreneurship in itself is like the biggest personal development journey you will take. Right? It can be such a roller coaster. It can be high highs and low lows, and it can just change very quickly. And one of the things that I always try to remind myself when I'm experiencing those low lows, is that things can change in like 30 days. Right. And we do have to, you know, really figure out, okay, what, what do I need to be doing right?

Speaker 1 (13:00):

As the entrepreneur, as the business owner, as the person in control of content creation or sales, what do I need to do to adjust that? You know, just my perspective, but also just the way the trajectory of my business. And that's not always easy. And there's certainly going to be things that impact that, but it does help to really try and change our perspective as well. So back to the intersection, the intersection is strategy spirituality and self-inquiry, and whilst many of you, many of us have probably lent heavy into that strategy. Focus. These three really work together and they walk in the most wonderful way. You need a strategy. I need a strategy. We all need a strategy. Okay. I feel like Oprah, we all need a strategy. Okay. And the strategy is going to be the thing that guides us is going to be the thing that gives us that kind of anchor point.

Speaker 1 (13:55):

Now, for anyone listening, who's like, oh, strategy. I hate that word. I get it. Okay. I do really understand it. They're all going to be some of you listening who have this like real, like, Ugh, like adverse reaction to the word strategy. Maybe even to things like goal setting, because they are so overused. But the thing is, it's not strategies fault. Okay. It's not strategies. Fault strategy is the way in which we create a plan. Okay. It's a long-term plan. A long-term a, long-term like roadmap. And it really is about the long time. It's a thing that we are working towards now at long time, it can be anything from six months to, you know, like 10 years. And I think for many of us over the last 12 months, planning too far ahead, feels a little bit uneasy. I know it does for me.

Speaker 1 (14:40):

So I think six months feels kind of doable. And again, because of the last year, 18 months, we've all kind of learnt to pivot and evolve and adapt ourselves in ways that we just didn't know a possible. And so it really is important that we check in with ourselves, but we're going to get into that in just a bit. So strategy is really important. It is that kind of data-driven place and data is important. Data does tell us something, it tells us information. It's not that the data is bad it's that we often will take it personally. And we will often feel really offended. You know, when we look at, for example, unsubscribes, I look at every single past new unsubscribes. I don't really feel anything anymore, but I look, I want to know, okay. I want to know, is there a reason why they're unsubscribing because that information is data now of course, if they unsubscribing that mean sure.

Speaker 1 (15:34):

I would take it personally, but most of the time it's just people unsubscribing and I look and I'm like, okay, goodbye. See you later, you know, you'll come back if you want it, if you want to, but otherwise you're making space for the right people. And I know that again is a bit of a kind of woo woo and slightly overused response, but we do have to just practice that. And honestly, in my experience, it just comes with time. I'm not going to sit here and tell you to get over it, the that I still don't get over, you know, learn business. And it's been a very long time. So strategy really important. So the second part of this intersection is spirituality, right? And that place between strategy and spirituality. And I want to be really clear when I talk about spirituality. I'm not necessarily talking about religion.

Speaker 1 (16:19):

I am not a religious person, if you are, that is fine, but I am not. So for me, spirituality is really that thing that we, the anchors us, whatever it is for you. Right. I I'll tell a little, have a little anecdote right now, a little story. Okay. So I remember many years ago kind of, I've never been religious. I wasn't brought up in a religious family, even though my mom and half family are religious. And one of the things I realized probably in my late teens was that religion really gave people this thing to believe people. It was something that I started to understand in a different way. I was getting older and I started to just see the, you know, spirituality didn't need to be about anything in particular. It would be whatever I wanted it to be, but it gave people this kind of sense of groundedness, a sense of security.

Speaker 1 (17:20):

And for me over the time, I've realized that, you know, that can be personal and it can be what you want it to be. So when I'm talking about spirituality here, I'm talking about the practices, the rituals, the routines, the things that really ground you, right. It can also be like self care can be the things that you find really grounding the things that kind of bring you back to yourself. And I think that's really important. And I'm sure, I don't know, but I'm sure that many people who, you know, attend church or you know, are practicing religion, are going to find that those are the things that keep them going. It's the things that ground them and bring them back to themselves. It's the things that remind them, or you know, who they are, what they do and it's that kind of experience.

Speaker 1 (18:06):

So when we talk about spirituality here, I just wanna be really clear with just talking about any kind of rituals, routines practices that you find really bring you back to yourself and ground you, and really support you and your business as a human, right. That's really important as a human, you're not just a business owner. So for me, that is often things like the moon cycle tapping into the new moon and a full moon energy, really using that to help me plan my business. A lot of, you know, crystal work, Tara, Oracle, a lot of it is really tapping into my intuition for me, that is my key to spirituality. It's really tip, tapping into my higher self and really understanding, you know, who is that person, right? Who is that person who, you know, is potentially somewhere else in some other alternate universe succeeding and doing the things that I want to be doing, right.

Speaker 1 (18:57):

And how do I get closer to that point? Awesome. So this section between strategy and spirituality, this is really about layering your business into your needs. Okay. I talk about needs a lot, knowing what you need in every aspect of your business is crucial. It's so, so powerful because when we understand what we need, when we need what we need from email marketing, what we need from social media, what we need from our website, Pinterest, Facebook group, us sales, whatever it might be when we lay out our business into our needs, not the other way around, we are building a business on a foundation of intuition and self-care, we are building a business on a place of grounded and safe, solid ground, grounded and solid ground. We are building, we kind of, we going from a full cup rather than, you know, trying to run a business bun out and then go, oh crap.

Speaker 1 (19:55):

I haven't done any self care for six months. I'm going to try and cram some things in, but I don't really have the time because I'm too busy. Then this is a cycle that we can get into. So instead we're layering up business into the needs, the needs that we have, right? The things that we really want and need, we are layering our business into that. And that is where strategy and spirituality work really, really well together. And so the third magical section is self-inquiry right. The third section is selfish. Inquiry self-inquiry is a practice that really everyone needs to be doing on a regular basis. But as entrepreneurs, this is key for us to spend less time in that self-doubt spend less time procrastinating or, you know, going back and forth and decisions. It really helps us to make quicker decisions. I don't wanna say better decisions, but it helps us to make quicker decisions.

Speaker 1 (20:54):

And it helps us to, you know, say, okay, this is a decision I've made and I'm going to stick with it, right? Because it's driven by my values. It's driven by my intuition. Therefore we can't go wrong. We may need to pivot or adjust at some point, but we can't go wrong from that. And self-inquiry is just one of the most wonderful tools that I have developed and discovered over the last couple of years in my own business. And as I said before on this, on this show is I don't wake up one day and go, oh, I'm going to start doing self-inquiry. It was something that kind of just happened over time. I became really curious and curiosity is self-inquiry right. And self-inquiry is the antidote to overthinking is the antidote to self judgment. Because when we are curious, we ask questions, right? And we ask really curious and open and expansive questions.

Speaker 1 (21:52):

And we don't shame ourselves. This is where we really grow. So this is where we start to acknowledge who we are, right? That place between spirituality and self-inquiry between those routines, rituals and practices that really ground you and being curious in our business, this is where you acknowledge who you are, right? You acknowledge that you are this person who needs these things, your personal needs, your personal energy levels, your personal values, these things are necessary and are important part of your business. Okay. This is how you acknowledge who you are instead of trying to change who you are or fit into some kind of like Instagram worthy the box. Okay. And then finally this place between self-inquiry and strategy, okay, I'm going to put a visual of this in the show notes, so you can really see it. So, you know, if you're really struggling to see this, it's like a Venn diagram and there's these three circles and we have strategy spirituality and self-inquiry, and they're all layered, but there's these sections between each way we can start to really anti-fraud business.

Speaker 1 (23:00):

And I'm going to get into exactly how in just a moment. So the final section is between self-inquiry and strategy. And this is where we start to understand that you need from each layer of your business, right? So understanding what you need from each layer of your business, what do you need from social media? What do you need from your email marketing? What do you need from your financial goals? What do you need? You know, what do you need when you're showing up your clients or your students or your customers, right? What do you need from that relationship? Not just financially, but what do you need to feel, right? What do you need to feel? Have you ever really sat down and thought about this? Because so often we are told, like, it's all about the, it's all about them. And it is about them, right?

Speaker 1 (23:43):

Customer service is hugely. They are the people paying you. We need to take care of them, but you also need to take care of yourself because you are an integral part of this business. And without you, unless you are running ULI, fueling fully on passive income, right. You probably aren't necessary somewhere in the equation. So it's important that we understand what we need from each layer as about each layer of our business, right? And as he said, from there, we can layer in your business, into your needs. And then this is where we acknowledge who you are, your personal needs, your energy levels and your values. And this is really important. And this is where we start to challenge the status quo of online business and anti [inaudible] businesses. Now, look, I've just covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. I get that, as I said, I'm going to make sure this visual is on the website.

Speaker 1 (24:35):

And we're probably going to put this visual on our Instagram feed as well. Right? So entrepreneurial underscore Outlaws on Instagram, come over and follow us. And you'll see this visual in there as well. We've covered a lot of ground and I'm really passionate. So I've been tool fast. Okay. I know you don't need to speed the show up, but the reason this is so crucial and the reason this is so key is because most of the stuff we're taught in online business, doesn't think about you. It doesn't consider a person's needs. It doesn't consider a person's circumstances. It doesn't consider a situation. It is focused on hustle. Culture is focused on do more and be more on one more. And if you're not, then you don't belong here for so long, we have been told, what were you saying and need from our businesses? We have been told that we should want six figures.

Speaker 1 (25:36):

I'm not turning it down, but I'm also not sure how hard I'd have to work to achieve that. Right, right now we've been told that, you know, we would give up working 45 hours for somebody else to work 60 hours a week for ourselves. I don't want to work 60 hours a week. Even for myself, we've been told that if you only want a side hustle, that's not okay, NEF, you should want to be a full-time entrepreneur. I know people that don't want that. I know people that are very, very happy in their full-time corporate job and they're employed job. And that business allows them to also have something for themselves that they really enjoy and bring them in extra income. Why is that a problem? Right? Why is that a problem? But people are told this consistently with totally, if we don't want to be a go boss, that we don't fit in.

Speaker 1 (26:32):

We're told her that if we don't have a brand that looks like everyone else's, then we don't fit. And we're not necessarily told this upfront with clear communication, it's subtle, it's manipulative. But the reality is that we can do things on our terms. There will always going to be parts of online business that we will continue to use. There are going to be parts of online business that actually really do make sense. For example, marketing, marketing, and business, you know, really important. We need to market our businesses, how you do it. There's a lot of choice. And you actually get to decide that, right, but that's not as sexy. It's sexier. If somebody tells you, this is the thing you need, this is the secret. And I'm going to show you how, but you get to choose. So all there certain foundations that we can have in our business, they're going to make sense.

Speaker 1 (27:29):

Yes. Visibility, right? Traffic, people coming and looking at our work. That's going to help. That's going to be a crucial part, talking about your business marketing content creation, content strategy. Yeah. We need to do that. We need, we are living in a world where we can all get away from content creation. But again, where you do that kind of up to you, do you want to have some kind of customer journey to take your audience on? Absolutely. But again, as you guessed, it there's many choices. There's many different ways to create a customer journey and you get to decide what that looks like. And I'm going to bet that you already know more than one way of doing all of these things. You already know more than one social media platform. And you know, more than one way of creating content, you know, more than one way of creating an email sequence or a lead magnet or free content, you know, more than one way of selling and launching your products and offers.

Speaker 1 (28:30):

So it's now time that we start to take all of that information and figure out what we want as business owners, figure out which pieces we are going to keep trying, which pieces have already been successful for us. And don't make us feel like we need to take a shower afterwards, because that's also important, which pieces could we take and create something entirely new, which pieces could we take and then create something entirely brand new. And that's so exciting. It's so exciting to think that you can take all of these things and then create something that works specifically for you and know it may not be completely brand new and there may be somebody else doing it the same way, but that doesn't mean you can't do it like that too. It really doesn't.

Speaker 1 (29:21):

So I'm hoping that from today's episode of what you've realized is that it doesn't have to be really complicated to challenge the status quo of online business or to anti bro your business. There are three things, three kind of, I don't wanna say three steps. There are three phases that we can work through strategy spirituality. And self-inquiry, that is the intersection, right? That is the intersection of entrepreneurship. That is the intersection of being an entrepreneurial outlaw, understanding that we can have all of these things. They can work together in harmony. And sometimes we are going to be leaning hard on one more than the other. That's the reality of it. When you are launching or promoting, you're probably going to be leaning really hard is that strategy. But there's going to be moments when you kind of need that spirituality to ground. You, there's going to be moments where you're like, I'm having a little spiral.

Speaker 1 (30:15):

I need to journal. I need to figure out, I need to be curious. Then you're going to be leaning into self-inquiry. It's okay. To be more than one thing. It is okay to focus on more than one thing. But what's really, really important is that we start to understand what we need, what we need from each area and layer of our business. And then we layer up business into those needs, fastest trying to cram ourselves into this like business in a box and cramming ourselves into somebody else's rules. Right? We have talked about this so many times in the show, but we do not need to follow the rules. We did not need to follow other people's rules. Right? We do not need to follow other people's rules. We can challenge these things. We can decide what this looks like for us. And it's okay if strangers judge your business based on numbers, right?

Speaker 1 (31:09):

It's okay. If somebody wants to pass judgment on what your business appears to look like from the outside, but as long as you are measuring your business and your success in a way that feels aligned with your values, right? If you're measuring it on how happy it makes you and how much joy you get, then that's what really matters. That's really, really important. And I hope that you can take this away from today's episode, that these are the three things that we can really lean into. This is the way in which we've broken down the ABM library. So the ABM library covers these three things and you'll find resources in each of the sections, truthfully, they all cross over because they're all equally important. But I wanted to really bring this into, into perspective and show you these three sections, show you these three phases, this intersection that we can walk from, right?

Speaker 1 (32:04):

And as I said, we'll have the visual. If you're a visual person like me, we'll have it up on the website and also on our feed on Instagram, entrepreneurial underscore Outlaws. So thank you for joining me for today's episode. We have been taking a deep dive over these last two episodes into bro marketing, talking about what it is, how I'm defining it. And then also the ways in which we can challenge it and how we can continue to do this work. It's so important that we continue to do this work for future business owners, but also for ourselves and for our audiences and our customers and clients. And it, no, I know it's exhausting. I know it can be really frustrating at times. Trust me, I have those moments where I'm like, it's, it feels really unfair. It feels unfair that we maybe have to work that much harder to build and grow a business that is ethical and is value-driven.

Speaker 1 (32:56):

But the payoff is important because we do what is right and not always easy. Now we're going to be taking a couple of more weeks for the summer break and we are going to be back the early September. I want to say it's September 9th. I really should have written down the date, but we're going to be back first week of September with a brand new episode of entrepreneurial outdoors. And over the next few weeks, I'm going to be working on some new things that you'll be listening to here on the show. And we're also going to be starting some new segments, things like shorter episodes each month, we're going to be focusing on what would an outlaw do, right? So what would an outlier do when their launch fails or what would an outlaw do when imposter syndrome shows up? So I'm going to be recording some episodes, covering these questions and topics.

Speaker 1 (33:47):

And these are going to be kind of shorter bite sized episodes. At least that's the plan, but you know, I'm a talker. So if you have anything in particular, you would love me to answer. What would an outlaw do, please head over to Instagram, entrepreneurial underscore, Outlaws, follow us over there. And I've got some stories up where I'm asking you to let me know, you know, what kind of questions would you like me to cover? We've been doing some brainstorming behind the scenes on what kind of things we haven't talked about yet here on the show. And I'm going to be covering those. There's going to be some things that we'll be talking about, even deepest, very specific kind of micro topics versus kind of these big macro themes. We're going to have brand new guests. I've been recording episodes over the summer with some incredible guests, and we're going to be bringing those to your ears from September.

Speaker 1 (34:35):

And then guys, we're going to be having our first birthday, October 1st, entrepreneurial Outlaws is one year old, which feels still kind of far away, but I'm kind of concerned that it's going to come up on me very quickly. So I'm going to be working on what we're going to be doing in October. We're going to be focusing in solely on our first birthday. So there's going to be some really fun things. I'm planning a giveaway, maybe more than one. I really need to figure this out. I'm going to be planning a giveaway. We're also going to have some extra special episodes. And of course we are going to be doing, oh, things outlaw over on Instagram and we'll have weekly episodes again from that first week in September. So if you have not subscribed to the show, make sure you hit subscribe, take a moment to do that.

Speaker 1 (35:23):

So you get notified of our next episode in early September, if you have not left a rating and review and you enjoyed today's episode, or you've just, you know, you love this show because we took about the real raw and honest truth. Please feel free to leave a five-star rating and review. This is how we get the show in front of more people. It helps us to really bring it attention to entrepreneurial Outlaws, which I think we can all agree is super important. And it will help us to continue building out guests and just really bringing more eyes over to this movement and the work that we are doing. So please leave a five-star rating review last night, how much you love us because we love you too. We think you're awesome. And I keep saying we it's me and my podcast manager, Hailey. She is the brains behind the scenes. I'm lucky that I get to sit down and just talk, but I want to give her a shot as well, because she has been working over the summer to help me put together these pieces. And yeah, I love you Hailey. So thank you so, so much for being here. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you in September Outlaws, have a good rest of your summer.