Hello and welcome to episode two of the MUSE PODCAST . My name is Summer. I am the CEO of Empire Builders Studio. I am a writer, a creative, and I honestly just love talking about the issues that I see in business life, talking about breaking generational curses and life lessons that I have learned moving through.

What is business, life, and relationships? And this podcast is, of course, all about you building the life that you muse over. And I can't wait to talk to you about a very personal story of mine, which is, in the business world, I feel like a lot of us have gone through, bad investments. Now, I want to preface this and say,

I will not be naming any names because I think that's just kind of rude and to be honest, it's just not my personal style unless you're like literally harming people. That's a story for, you know, a different time when I do like to call people out. But I will not be dropping a name so there's no cliffhanger like that to hang out for. But what I will be doing...

Oh my goodness, my phone is trapping me. What I will be doing is talking deeply about my experience with it and how truly having a bad investment isn't the end all be all. And ultimately, what I do now in my business to 100% make sure that my clients have the best type of experience that I could possibly ever get them. Now, without any further ado, let's.

hop into our time machine, open the door, step in, look at all the nodes and dials and bells and whistles, and push the big red button that says back in time. We are shape shifting and moving through time back to the year 2019, around December time. This was before COVID and

before the world kind of went to shit, to be honest. I had just moved from California to Florida and I had everything that I could have ever owned stuffed in my little Nissan Sentra. And I said, screw it, I'm going to go to Florida. I'm going to make this business dream a reality and nothing and no one is going to stop me. Now,

In December, I had already bought a copywriting course because I thought I was going to be a copywriter. That was my first business. However, I subsequently realized that really truly wasn't for me specifically. I know a lot of fabulous copywriters, but my writing expertise genuinely lies in storytelling and investigative journalism, and that's what I currently do. So,

bought a course, a copywriting course, and that's not the course I'm going to shit on right now. The course I'm specifically going to shit on is after that copywriting course, I went ahead and purchased a marketing course from a Miss Ma'am that will not be named, but I do have a thing or two to say about it. So picture me.

couple years ago in the infancy of my business, much like many of you, if you're even thinking about messing your business, you're kind of like, where the hell do I even start? Ha ha ha, pause really quickly before you swipe that credit card, I wish someone stopped me before I did. Now, I was sitting in our living room. This was about a 775 square foot apartment. You can well imagine that the living room.

was the size of a bedroom. It was a very small place. We had no furniture. Our mattress was on the ground. No sofa, no chairs. I think I had one desk that I completely took apart and shoved in my car from California to Florida. And it was the same white Ikea desk that I had bought off of another UCI.

So for those who don't know, University of California Irvine, kind of like UCLA, but UCI, because it's in Irvine. I had bought it for $10 off another student who was moving out, and I was like, oh my God, this desk is awesome. I can totally screw off the legs. And it carried with me pretty much for three out of five years of college. And I said, I'm gonna take that desk. I don't have any space for a chair.

I'm going to order a mattress to our new place. Oh, so exciting with my husband. And we're gonna move in. And I was sitting on the floor in the living room at around 9 p.m. at night when this was after I had binged all of her content. And I was like, wow, she really knows what she's talking about. And FOMO, you guys, was so real.

She had talked about how this specific program was worth thousands of dollars and because she was feeling generous, she was going to sell it for like $300 or $400. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a pinch for money, but I know I was. And it's pretty difficult to...

spend money and invest on yourself, especially when you are the ultimate and only breadwinner for not only yourself, which is already responsibility in and of itself, but you are also potentially the breadwinner for your family, for the little ones who rely on you, for your parents. Like money has never just... the money has never just been yours or if it has just been yours like...

you don't have any other resources to go to if that money runs out. And that was essentially where I was at in my life. My husband and I, he was my boyfriend at the time, husband now, we had moved in together. He was making a very little amount of money. I had moved across country. And for the first time in my life, I did not plan a...

Oops. But I didn't have a job. I eventually got a part-time job in like a physical therapy office. But I had gone from working 16 hour shifts, full-time job, and full-time income to relying on the $5,000 that I had in savings. Needless to say, between my groceries, half of the rent, car payment, insurance, phone bill,

your girl was struggling to keep any of the money. Like paycheck to paycheck was not even, like I wish it was paycheck to paycheck. I was spending more than I was actually earning. And so the $5,000 I had in reserves really truly were for reserves. And I wanted to keep as much of my money.

to be put to good use as I possibly could. And I truly thought this investment was going to be good for me. I talked to my boyfriend at the time, now my husband, I'll just call him my husband from this point on, but I talked to my husband and I said, hey, I really think this is good. I really want to make this investment. Would you mind getting the rent this month around because I'm gonna be using my half for this course.

And he said, yes, of course, whatever to support you. If you think it's good, it's good. And pause really quickly because if you have ever been the unfortunate end, the receiving end of a really freaking good marketing campaign with a terrible product, I am so sorry. I feel that, I was that and it is, it hurts your soul.

Unpause.

So me, on the living room floor, credit card in hand, 9 p.m. at night, faux mode, out of my existence, scared I will never get a deal like this ever again. I entered my card details, hit the pay now button, paid in full, but $400 and waited so eagerly for that chime to ping for my inbox saying that I had access. About two minutes later, the chime pinged as it normally would. I ran over to my laptop, hit the OK Accept button, opened the email, logged in, put all my username information, and out popped this course. This

Canva looking screensaver course. And I don't mean that in a bad way, I love Canva. So it looked pretty, okay? That's what I'm trying to say, like it looked pretty. And I saw that there were like 30 freaking videos in it. I was like, oh my God, there is so much information this has to be good, right? I've never done that, like you look at something, the more something is shoved in there, like somehow it's good.

Right? So I was like, oh my gosh, yes, thank you. I am on cloud nine. I'm making the most of my investments. I am living the dream, excuse me, six figure CEO coming at you in 2020. And as I began to go through the recordings and the videos and the templates, I sat there.

and almost instinctively punched my screen. Because for one, there was no return. Like, I could not return or get any type of refund. The reason I wanted a refund was because the second I clicked on a video, it was an hour long of a pre or sorry, it was a live recording of an Instagram live Where the first I want to say 20 minutes of the whole damn recording was her talking about her expertise explaining how her membership was all that jazz and Calling people to like Respond, you know how you can respond as someone is doing lives She was calling people to like cheer her on in the comments or whatever and she had like all these side-tans gentle conversations with people who were assumably commenting but you can't see that on the screen recording so it just looks like she's talking to these imaginary people and I was I could slowly feel my heart sinking and…

I was so embarrassed because I was like, wow, did I really spend my hard earned money on this? And I quickly pulled myself together. I was like, wait a second, like this can't be it. I start scrolling, I start scrolling, I start scrolling. Like, okay, sure, maybe, you know.

Video number one has to be like that because she's introducing herself. Like, maybe that's it. Video number two, same thing. Video number three, same thing. But in video number 10, I had fully lost faith in this course. So I was like, okay, let me just take a look at the templates. Maybe the templates will have some redeeming qualities about them. And I looked at the templates and they were these.

nasty, outdated Google docs that basically just word vomited slash transcribed what she was saying on the videos onto there. Like there were places you could fill in your thoughts, like lines that you could just fill in your ideas and it made no damn sense. Like there was no strategy.

The whole reason, and I have to preface this, and like, actually, not preface, I have to come up and say that I really was sold on the strategy part. I am a strategy girl. I love strategy, I love frameworks. Like, I will do the damn thing if you tell me how to do the damn thing. And, oh, those are my dogs. And like many of us, it's not about not doing it. It's just, I don't know what to do, so help me out.

The whole marketing behind this course was, one, an extreme use of FOMO, which I absolutely hate. Like, I don't, okay, so I hate it as a consumer when it's used the wrong way. As a marketer, I think FOMO is great when it's used for good, not evil. And that's gonna be a whole different topic, but.

It was surrounded, the marketing was surrounded by FOMO, and it was all talking about strategy. Apparently this coach was a strategy girl too. And I was like, oh my God, thank you. Like we relate, I can't do the whole energetics, creativity style. Like I need it hard copied on paper. And I guess to her, regurgitating her thoughts onto paper … I don't know. I truly don't know, but I remember that in that time, I literally couldn't face my husband. He would ask me what I learned and stuff, and I was very like, oh, you know, I just did it. It was good, it was good, it was good.

I was so embarrassed that I had spent $400 on absolute steaming hot shit…

and It's crazy to me how that is a norm in the business coaching business mentorship space and it pisses me the fuck off if I'm going to be honest like I am It's beyond me that people out there Will take someone's hopes dreams and hard-earned money like okay if you're gonna hurt my hopes and dreams at least don't take my money right like don't take my money i need that to live we all need that to live inflation is ridiculous but no they will they will take it not think twice and give half-assed shit on a platter embezzled in it

diamonds and encrusted in Swarovski crystals and still stand by it and I think that's why personally for me whenever I have a course my business mentorship my one-on-one services like I go above and beyond for my clients because I know at the end of the day like this is not only your time

your respect, your self-respect I'm working with, it's your money, it's your dreams. And what I took away from that whole moment in time, so we can get back into our old time machine now, hit the yellow button to shoot us over back into real time, into this moment. And what I have realized is that

It is so, so important when you are making your investments to truly be the annoying one out there and figure out what is good for you. And if you are in this space where you think you're ready for an investment, I'm gonna break it down to you real simple life so you know if you're actually going to be getting your money's worth. And a lot of people are gonna be pissed off at me. I don't really give a fuck because at the end of the day,

We're here to break generational curses, not create new trauma surrounded with money and self-respect and self-dignity, okay? So, let me lay out to you a real simple like. When you are getting ready to invest in business, there are about three key foundational phases you need to go through, okay? Let's bring it out. The newbie.

The new person getting their feet wet into even what the fuck is having a business all about what is a service industry. What do you even like to do? That is phase number one, very base secured level. In this secure state, in this foundational space, phase one is all about understanding what your industry is. Do you like males? Do you like painting? Are you a creative? Are you a marketing strategist? Are you a social media manager? Social media strategist? What are you? What would you like to be? And YouTube, your brains out. Do not, do not pay for this type of education. Okay? Right now you're just dipping your toe in water to see what feels good to you. What kinda looks good on paper? What can you match your skills to? UGC, video creation, what is it? What do you like to do? And see what jobs technically you can go for and create a business out of, okay? You tube your brains up, step number one. Phase number two is where you start thinking about your niche. Okay, you like nails.

Do you like to do manicures? Do you like to do pedicures? Do you like to do both? Are you a press on nail girly? Are you, insert whatever here because I am not the best at this stuff. I don't know why I picked that. If you like hair, do you absolutely hate cutting men's hair? Do you absolutely hate highlights?

This is the vetting process.

This is where you're going to see not just what you like, because what you like is endless, right? There's so many things that you can like. You need to see what is it exactly that you hate doing in your industry? What would you rather grate your face against a cheese grater with than do, okay? Figure out what you hate, because that is going to save you so much heartbreak in the future when you're crafting your offers, and you're like, oh, I-

do this and then you realize wow I'd rather go back to my nine to five than have and take another client for X service here right okay so now we figured out step one your industry figuring out what there is to know about your industry diving in step number two vetting vet what you don't like step number three you're gonna go out and do the damn thing

You have to test the waters, especially if you are absolutely new. Test the waters, do a few test runs. A lot of people will say, charge your worth, charge for the process, charge, charge. And I'm over here to say that it is okay to not charge for your first three projects because you don't even know what you don't know.

You don't know what it's like to work with a client one-on-one. You don't know what it's like to have real life problems come at you, right? And I'm talking about this is for my very beginner faces.

If you are switching niches, if you're trying something new out, like you don't know what you don't know. And so you don't want to build a bad experience where someone is paying you money for a subpar service, right?

Now, mean that you should be doing this all the time. I'm just saying so you feel comfortable with the way this stuff works and doing the actual work to produce an actual product. Okay? One to three, one to three offers, one to three services. It's not that big of a deal in the long run. Those are the three foundational pieces. Notice here we have not discussed investing. We have not discussed like spending money on your craft because up until this point you are still figuring out what your craft is. You are still figuring out what you actually like to do. Now if you are out of my foundational stage people and you're just like, Summer I know what I like. I know what I'm doing. I have had my hand my share of like one to three clients. I like what I'm doing.

Why the fuck do I market myself now? This is where it gets juicy. After you know what it is you like to do, you're going to struggle with really understanding how are you going to create an offer that is packaged in a pretty bow to then sell to your ideal clients, right? That is the biggest disconnect we see between people who offer an amazing service.

and people who need the service and don't know you exist. Now, marketing is a whole massive ecosystem, but I will say after phase three, you are going to be in phase four, which is laying down your business foundations. Do not skip over to marketing just yet, because if you skip over to marketing, AKA screaming your services, from the rooftops and people come to inquire and you don't have the business foundation to be priced for profit. Understand how much time it takes you to do X, Y, and Z in your service. Understand what are some client expectations and what can you produce.

Understand what exactly is inside of your offer and the transformation someone can receive. You're going to create a terrible, gonna be honest a terrible client experience where you're gonna be fumbling through doing the service, they're gonna have, your client is gonna have a subpar experience and you're gonna be charging subpar because you don't even know how and why you came up with the numbers charged, right? You probably look at a competitor and you're like, oh, I think this is good.

No, no, we're not doing that.

I mean, you can do that, I did that, and it took me like a whole year almost to get my shit together as a business mentor because I could do the service technically but I didn't have my business foundation laid. Ugh, like skincare, don't skip the steps. Don't skip the steps unless you want to have an inflamed face, okay? Sunscreen last, people, sunscreen last. So,

I can get into like the different phases in a different podcast, but since I was talking about bad investments, I really want you to know that when you get to phase four or five, business foundations, phase four, marketing, phase five, expansion, which is phase six, that is when you're going to pull out your credit card, okay? Until you reach...

PHASE 4: BUSINESS FOUNDATIONS - do not invest a single penny yet.

because phase one, two, three is the knowledge-gathering phase. You cannot pay someone to help instill knowledge about your service, your craft, your opinions on your service and craft, excuse me. Okay, you cannot pay someone to tell you if you will like something or you will not like something. You can pay.

to further educate yourself in the thing that you like but if you're dipping your toe into the water to say, do I even like this thing?

Don't pay, don't pay.

The more experience that you get, the more you're gonna figure out if you like something or if you don't like it. Get the experience first and don't pay. I should have like taken a drink every time I said don't pay because then we would be having a real good time.

So I hope that helps a little bit. I hope my experience back in 2019 helps relieve the pressure and self-guilt if you have ever made a bad investment because we all have. We all have. It is hard to have a winner every time. It's hard to win with every product you ever buy. It's hard to win with every investment you ever make. But At the end of the day, it's all about figuring out what you learn, picking up and moving forward. Personally, I know that I'm going to ask a million and five questions and be the annoying one, quote unquote annoying one. I call it due diligence before I make an investment. And especially if something says there is no return policy. Pause. I'm going to figure out exactly what we're getting from it. And only then I'm going to make my investment. So

If you have any questions about investments or what it looks like, if you wanna hop in my DMs, I'm most active on Instagram, empirebuilders.studio, and I cannot wait to speak to you about it. I would love to know what investments have screwed you over. Like, let's chat about it because it has happened to more people than you think. So, till next time, I'm Summer and we'll chat super soon.

This is the Muse Podcast.