Do you have a business or an expensive hobby? with Greg Faxon

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Nope Coach podcast. This is episode 204. Do you have a business or an expensive hobby? I'm your host, Suzanne Kohlberg, joined once again by Greg Faxson. I'm excited for this conversation because it's kind of going to be the one where people are going to be like, no, no, don't listen. And then it's kind of going to.

Be like, terrible retention on this one.

I will throw myself under the bus and volunteer as tribute for this. When I was very early in, you don't know what you don't know. So I enrolled in a certification because, you know, I felt. Felt like having that would be helpful. And it said that they had a business building module or opportunity or whatever.

Of course it did.

Yeah, they all do.

Very comprehensive.

Yeah. Which is like, you know, a PDF for a spreadsheet or something so they can tick a box. And then I didn't really know what I was doing, so I was like, oh, okay, maybe I need this other certification. And so it became that one day my husband, bless his cotton socks from a place of love, said to me, do you have a business or an expensive hobby to. Which wasn't the smartest thing. It kind of was a bit explosive. But he was right. It was kind of like a business. It depends what you define it on. As in is somebody's paying you. And a hobby is when you're spending the money. And sometimes people aren't ever going to want to have a business. And that's okay if you just love personal development for the sake of it, you do you. But if you're using it as a way of avoiding the business and looking for things that have, you know, a. A business component or a business element, like really there's. It's a whole different thing. But this reminds me, because I know you've got your book, it's Don't Let the Fear Win, where you talk about the illusion of doing everything to succeed. And I think we can have this illusion of doing everything to build our business when really we're just, we've got a hobby. So I'd love to hear your thoughts, Greg.

Usually you can tell when something's a revenue generating task versus creative avoidance because the revenue generating task, you're creating something and creative audience, you're consuming something. And so education usually consuming it. And that's just easier because we just passively consume. Now, some people might find from episode one that we did, their bottleneck is client retention. And they kind of skip this step of like having the goods. And that's fine. Actually, addressing that might do a lot for your business by getting some training in an area that would help you get better results with clients. Nothing wrong with that. But if you're continuously learning to avoid some of the things that you feel uncomfortable about selling, marketing, putting yourself out there, then that's one form of creative avoidance. And you've passed the point of diminishing returns like that. Extra certification will not net you more clients. It won't grow the business. It won't even necessarily get people better results.

I love that. And it's such a great question to pause and ask yourself because there's. Especially at the time we're recording this, we're coming up to that Black Friday, Cyber Monday time of the year where your inbox is flooded with all these deals and these things. You can be like, oh, and it's like, am I buying this thing because it's actually going to take the needle forward? Like, is this a skill set that I am lacking, or is it because I'm just interested? And then if that's the case, like, for me, that comes because we were talking in our previous episode about weeks at work and time blocking and whatever. If it's something that I want to do purely for me, I don't schedule it in my business hours. It's like, this may be a tax deduction because of, you know, the field that I'm in. That's great. But the time that I'm going to work on, it can't be my business time, because then, as you said, I'm not moving a needle forward because I am expanding a skill set that is beneficial but not, you know, time pertinent. Yeah.

It's like those might have to be things you do in your outside hours in the same way you do some professional development outside of a job. If you had an employer now, if you're going to a live event and you might actually get clients or meet people or make sure that can be part of your business hours. But I think that's well said.

Yeah. And I think the other thing, too, it's kind of, as you said, make. I don't like making yourself. I don't like make or force or push, but stepping outside of the comfort zone into doing the things that aren't necessarily comfortable. And did I write it down. You said something in your book that I really enjoyed about, you know, prioritizing the tasks as opposed to doing the scarier ones. So like, you know, reaching out to somebody to book a consult or following up or something where you could technically get rejected is a lot scarier than I'm just going to go and listen to a module in another course or I'm going to go. As you said, consume versus create.

That emotional labor is literally what you get paid for as an entrepreneur, especially if you're in like the coaching world. I want to touch on one thing too, which is maybe you've had this happen. Like I remember a specific client once and you know she signed up for one on one coaching with me which is like 15 or 16k, it's not.

Cheap and US dollars for my listeners. So that's like half again more in Australian.

Yeah, so like you know, that's a big investment. And I noticed that she wasn't really doing, taking action between the sessions and I realized I was thinking about her one day because then I got stressed because I'm like, what? You know, she's paid me a lot of money but then she's not gonna get the result. And then, and I was like, hold on, she's not really doing the stuff, so what's going on? And I realized she thought that when she paid me she solved the problem. But that's not how it works. All she did when she paid me was get. Now I have support to go take action to solve the problem. And I think we have to watch out that we don't fall into that trap when we buy course, do a certification, hire a coach by investing in the thing. It's a great step. It may shortcut the route for you, but you cannot check the box on, you know, fix that problem in my business. And the same way that if you, you know, paid for a gym membership, you're not fit yet, you, you do do have access to the gym now, but you cannot check the box. It's taking the action with or without that investment and support that will actually get you the result.

I think that's such a great point because some marketing that I see like the transformation begins with the investment or whatever, they really, they kind of make that a selling point. And it's like as you said, you have purchased the support. Yes, but much like a gym piece of gym equipment, if you don't use, if you don't get on the treadmill, if you don't lift the weights, they're just like an expensive clothes horse.

So actually do something that can help with this. And if you're in the like change work coaching field, it might be something to experiment with and it's testing the. Yes. So basically I don't know if I came up with this or I learned it from someone. I don't know who to attribute it to, but I often enroll people on the phone just for my one on ones. I enroll people on the phone, we've had a conversation and they're signing up and before they, I hit submit or they hit submit to the invoice or whatever, I say before you type in the stuff, but then before you hit submit, just stop for a second because I'm going to say something and they do it and then they stop and I say cool before you hit submit. When you pay for this, it's not just going to be investment of money. You're going to have to invest time, you're going to have to invest energy to get the result you want. And I'm also going to be investing my time and part of my life into you. So if you hit submit or I, when I hit submit, are you, are you committed to doing things that might be uncomfortable at times? They'll be within integrity for you, but that might be uncomfortable to move this forward, yes or no. And then they always say yes. Right. But it helps them have that reckoning moment and just make that clear. And I found that when I started doing that that helped too. Because then when we come to a time where stuff's uncomfortable and they're like not doing the thing, I'm like, do you remember when you signed up, you said that you were willing to get uncomfortable? So this decision was already made.

Yeah. And I love that. The point of, you know, it's not just money time to, as you said, to do the work between sessions or, you know, to take some actions between. So make the most of the session that you have with your coach so you can come to them and go, this is what's happened in between. Like if you were aiming to get fit, like I know you used to do wrestling, like professionally, if you only wrestled when your coach was there, if you didn't take any other action between the sessions, that's gonna be quite rate limiting. And the other thing, energy, because, yeah, energy is a currency that a lot of people don't really factor in. And I remember reading not that long ago, have you heard the spoon theory? So it was originally a term for like for mental health, I believe. But they're saying like everybody has like a hundred spoons available to them and how many do you have at any one time? So when your spoons are low, like things that you just do normally, like having a shower, you wouldn't even think about that, you just have a shower. But when your energy is being like, you have a lot on your plate or there's been grief or disruptions, your spoons might be low. So are you going to allocate enough for those to have a shower? And it's kind of like when you get into a coaching container or a business or you're starting out something, you often have a lot of spoons. You're excited. This is going to be the thing. And you know, we do the goal setting on the planning where we've got our 400 allocation and then, you know, the kids get sick or you get sick or someone passes away or something unexpected happens. Do you have the self discipline, we spoke about that on a previous episode, to keep showing up, not to push or force or ignore life, but you know that this is going to be the thing that you're going to take action on regardless of everything else that's happening.

Yeah. People often seek change and invest in change when they have a lot of bandwidth and inevitably the plan that they create, as you mentioned, when they have a lot of bandwidth, at the outset, they're imagining this version of themselves that has 10 hours a week to work out instead of probably three. It doesn't last when you get into a phase of life where you have less bandwidth, which is usually a few months after you started the coaching. Which is why when I work with people, I like to do it for longer periods, 6 months, 12 months. Because when they start, they have a lot of bandwidth and they're really excited. And then what happens is they get into a phase where something happens and they have much less. And we're like, great, now we actually understand what your weeks are going to look like and what your strategy is in the real world, not just in the phases that are easy because you have a ton of extra time.

Anyway, I love that. And that's something to be. Another way that I describe it in my work is seasons. So in the spring, energy of planting and excitement and starting to take the action, then the summer of the consistent and persistent action, then the autumn or the fall of the harvest and the winter. We understand it from a calendar point of view, but personally, our seasons can cycle a lot faster. Or in one area of your life you might have. So for me, at the time of recording this, I have a very personal winter going on. Like it's a big situation, but my business is still in summer. So it's navigating your life as its totality and not just breaking it into Its individual portions. And yeah, as you said, following it through. And when you work with a coach, when you least feel like the coaching is often the best time to go because this is why you've ended up here in the first place. And having that person to support you through just. It makes all the difference.

I like how you talked about different seasons and different areas of your life. That can be hard to reconcile. I feel like it's taken me, I'm going on 10 years in business now. I feel like it's taken me the entire 10 years to normalize the idea that I'll be very motivated sometimes and not motivated other times. And when I'm not motivated, it doesn't mean that something's wrong with the business or I'm not pursuing my passion. I just don't want to work. That's okay. Like most, most people don't want to work ever. Like, that's. That's most people. I gotta go to this job. I don't want to be here, and then I'm gonna go home and live my real life. Somehow in the entrepreneurship space, it's like if it's not 100, your passion all the time, like, you must need to tweak something in the business. And there's a lot of changes you can make to create, ease or to do things that, you know, juice you up. But yeah, there's gonna be times when you just don't want to do the work and you still have to do it, but you don't maybe have to do the same level that you'll do when you're super motivated. And that's okay.

I love that. And linking that back to the seasons, like a winter can be two weeks or two hours, or if we avoid it, two years like this, we don't know because that's not linked to the calendar. But the reason the cyclical approach really works for me, especially in business, say that you are launching something and you don't get the result that you hoped for, so you just extend the period or you keep pushing through or you offer all these bonuses or like, you know, it's kind of like in nature, if the apple is kind of starting to rot and the worms are crawling in it and the trees, you got to prune that there's going to be a whole other season following. So moving through that autumn or that fall and harvesting what was doesn't take away from where you're going or what you're desiring in another cycle that might happen. But by extending this one, and I think when we see life as linear before and after. And it's so often portrayed to us like that the rags to riches story. Before they were sleeping in the front seat of their car and eating canned beans, and now they've got a private yacht or whatever. And it's like this season can close so the new one can start. But hanging out here, I could totally go on about this for ages, but it's just kind of like. And I think back into the business or expensive hobby. A lot of my clients and people I work with have so much guilt or shame about things they've purchased in the past that they either never finished or didn't go the way they thought. It's like harvesting that. That version of you is. Is closed and a new spring can begin.

Yeah. You have to like, I would say, like that was your tuition to learn. Like the types of investments that are going to be right for you at the right time, you can't let go of that stuff. I feel like the worst, the worst thing you can do in a world where our energy is cyclical is to not accept the turning of the season. Right.

Yeah. And one last thing to add to that before we finish up, for anyone listening who may have, you know, guilt and shame and about an investment, like financial. I went to medical school. I left in my second last year. So in Australia, medical school, six years. I left halfway through fifth year. And a lot of people say about the money that I wasted because it's expensive. Medical school's not a. It's not chump change to invest in. I'm like, I could have seen that as a waste or I could have seen, I could have stuck for years and spent more time in an industry and a job and a thing that was not right for me to not really enjoy turning up for work every day. So in terms of my currencies, I spent, you know, a significant investment of money, but really not that much time in the scheme of things. Like some people do things for decades that all along they didn't enjoy. So it's like sometimes, cut yourself a bit of slack, go, okay, yeah, this was money or this was time or this was energy that was spent. But it's done now and then you can start fresh. And I find that really useful.

Yeah, I love that you brought that. I mean, that's like classic sunk cost fallacy, right? It's hard to ignore the sunk cost. It reminds me of that quote, like, no matter how far down the wrong road you've gone, turn around.

Yeah, it's like if you're climbing a ladder, but it's up against the wrong wall, it's like you're not gonna it's not gonna change the place that you're gonna end up at because you keep climbing.

Yeah.

So thank you once again for joining me, Greg, where can people find you? And. Yeah. What have you got going on? Let the listeners know.

Yeah. Gregfaxon.com the best place for kind of my home base. And if you're interested in kind of crafting and structuring, a week that works for you and gets you clients consistently, makes you money consistently. Weeks that Work is the program that you want. Weeks that work Dot com.

Perfect. Thank you so much for joining me, Greg. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Catch you on the next one. Bye for now.