Why it's ok to talk politics as a business owner

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Hello and good evening, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, coming to you live on the Facebooks, on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and over here on my phone on TikTok. Hello and welcome. Happy Saturday. Saturday night, I'm going to be doing this quick and dirty because I have family over and we're going to be doing dinner, but I wanted to come live because I think it's so important that we have some really tough conversations right now. We are 25 days, 24 days away from the election. This is a big election. This will determine the future of. Of half of our population and the rights that we will have going forward. And I know, I know the traditional advice out there for business owners is don't talk about your politics. Don't bring politics up. Don't let people know who you're voting for, what you believe. I think that's bullshit. I think that's absolutely bullshit. I think that is absolutely a way to see things. But it's very fair, fearful. And in here, here in Stop Being a Weenie land, we don't let fears drive our business. We also don't let fears drive our lives. So if you are passionate about women having bodily autonomy, if you're passionate about LGBTQ community having safety and gender affirming care and being able to love, they love, if you care about any vulnerable populations who will suffer under another Trump presidency, I urge you to be brave. I urge you to put on your big person pants and start talking about who you're supporting and why you're supporting her and sharing your political values with your people. I know it's scary. I know there's a lot of talk out there. If you're a business owner, like, you shouldn't share who you're going to be voting for. You shouldn't talk about politics because. Because people may not agree. They may cancel you. They may be upset with you. You might lose clients. Well, guess what? The clients that you're getting, being quiet might not be morally aligned to your values. All right? This, it's no longer really about politics. It's not. It's. It's about what is your moral standard? What is your moral guideline for life? How do you treat people who are. Who are. Are vulnerable in our community? You know, I kind of. I kind of joke that, like, this whole. This whole election's turning me into a Christian. I'M not a Christian, but I'm believing more and more that, like, there is one side that wants to take care of the poor, who wants to take care of the sick, who wants to welcome people who are looking for a better life and sounds very much like our old friend Jesus. Right? And it's definitely a lot of the values of the Democratic Party. So. So what happens when you share your politics and you're a business owner? This is one of the biggest fears. You're going to lose business. Like, people are going to not buy from you. They're going to cancel you. They're not going to pay attention. Yeah, all that will happen. All that will happen. But let me tell you, much better things will happen, you know, if you're afraid. And hello, Rico and Ellen and Hugo and Glory Jean and JJ and Ronnie and Paz and Donald and Liz and Aaron and Terry. Oh, my God. Everyone on TikTok. Hello. Wel. So. So here's what can happen when you share your politics. Yeah. You can lose people. There are people out there who only want to give their money to people who agree with them, and they're never going to buy from you. And, and even if they did buy from you, if they found out at some point, like, they wouldn't be great clients. But here's my question for you. If you're in the helping business, say you're like me, you're a business strategist or you're an executive coach, or you help people be more successful in some way, shape or form, and you're helping someone who you know is going to be tearing down trans rights, who you know is going to be taking away rights from women, who you know is going to be doing all these things that are very harmful to people that you hold dear, are you going to feel good about helping them be more successful? I don't think so. I think that's. That's a really hard line for me in my business because I know I help people make more money. And you know what people do with money they donate to candidates and, you know, candidates do with that money, they use that money to help them get elected. You know, if someone is diametrically opposed to what I believe, if they're supporting women's rights being taken away and I help them make, you know, several hundred thousand dollars in their business every year, that doesn't feel good because I know what they're doing with their money. It's not bad to lose clients to get people to leave your audience who do not agree with you. Right. So that's one side of it. But here's the other side of this is the people who don't believe what you believe, but they respect you, and they followed you for long enough that they trust you. You have no idea how much influence you may or may not have. You have no idea if someone's been following you and really respects you and, like, sees that. You have a really, like, interesting take on things. Hearing you share what matters most to you and why you're making a decision politically to vote for a specific person. You have no idea if that might just, like, open their eyes to something different, how that could genuinely change their perspective on a candidate who they maybe weren't going to support or, you know, some kind of policy that they weren't looking at in the right way. You have no idea how you could actually help change minds, how you could actually garner more rapport. I'm sorry, more support for the candidate that you want to elect office. All right, so, like, you know, my Democrats out here, my liberals, I know it's scary to share our beliefs. I know it's scary to put out there why we're supporting the candidate we're supporting. But guys, guys, like, there are so many people who are on the fence during this election, and I don't understand why, but, like, that's not what I'm trying to do here. There are so many people who feel disenfranchised with their vote. Like, they don't feel like it matters. Like, you going and just reminding them, hey, listen, I care about this, and here's why I care about this. And this is how it's literally going to impact my life. That can be enough sometimes to get them to change their mind. Right? There is. If you've ever heard of Harvey Milk. He was a politician in San Francisco, I think, in the 70s, 80s, I don't remember, but he was assassinated for being gay by another council person. But anyway, he was. He had this saying that, like, they can't vote against us if they know us. Right? And his call to action for everyone in the LGBTQ + community. He was gay. Is come out. Come out of the closet. Tell people because they can't vote against you, they understand that the law that they're voting for can hurt you. And the law that he was going against, right, at that. At that point, was that people could be fired from their jobs for being the LGBTQ + community. All right, As a woman. As a woman who is a business owner, you know, I. I need my right to my. My reproductive freedoms. Right. I need to know that I can control my own destiny. You know, I want lower taxes for the middle class and guess what? That is on the repel on the Democratic tickets, not what the Republicans are doing. You read Project 2025. It's not part of it. You know, I want access to health care. If you're thinking about starting a business and you want to go out on your own and you want to break away from your nine to five, how hard is that going to be if you have such a hard time getting health care, Especially if you have a pre existing condition. Right. The Affordable Care act has been an incredible liberator of entrepreneurs all over this country. And it is so important that we have someone in the White House who is going to protect that and who's going to help iterate it and make it better and more accessible and more affordable. Right. There's so many aspects to this election that are going to impact those of us who own small businesses, who work for ourselves, who are solopreneurs and freelancers. And really the only candidate that makes sense is Kamala Harris. That she's the only candidate that you can vote for that makes sense for a small business owner right now. Especially if you have children, especially if you want to have a family, right? The child tax credit that she's thinking about or she's hoping to pass when she gets into office, it's going to be a massive help to young families. It's going to be so incredible. At $6,000 of a tax credit for a newborn. If you want to have children and grow a family and be a business owner, that's going to be a massive help, right? What can a business owner do with $6,000? A lot. A lot. A lot, a lot, right. She also wants to make it more affordable for people to buy their first house. You know, if you're wanting to start a business and say you need some capital started, depending on the business, what it is, you know, when you go to the bank and you ask for a loan, you know what they ask for? They ask for collateral, right? And usually people will provide like collateral in the form of property that they own, right? And if you don't own, if you don't own your home, if you don't own any property, it's a lot harder to get that startup capital for your small business, right. If you're able to invest in a home, invest in that thing that you can use as capital, it's going to be a massive boost to you being able to start and grow Your business, right? There's so many reasons I could go on and on and on. But let me talk about a little bit about what happens when you talk about your politics online and people see it like, yeah, you're going to scare with the people who are like, just not ever going to change their mind. You might change some minds of people who just have never, like, seen it from your perspective and like, just because they're hearing it from you and they know you and they respect you, they, like, will actually start considering a different point of view and they may actually change who they're voting for. That is best case scenario. But for your business, let's talk about how this can make you more money. Let's talk about how this can actually bring in more aligned sole clients. And soul clients are the ones that like, you meet them, they're like your soulmate, but in business form, right? You're not, you're not going to marry them, but like, you just, it's like the heavens sing when you get to work with them, right? And usually they end up working with you for a really long time because you're just the perfect match, right? Those clients who believe the same thing that you do, who are voting for the same people who have the same values and morals, when they see you being open, when they see you sharing that you care about women's rights, that you care about the LGBTQ+ community, that you care about, bipoc folks that you care about, you know, all the things that they care about, they are far more likely to buy from you. They are, they are going to be like, they might have just been following you and lurking on your accounts and like, thinking, oh, maybe someday I'll sign up for their thing. But once you open that door and you say, hey, listen, like, this is what I'm. This is what I'm doing. This is who I'm voting for. This is what I care about. And here's the line in the sand that I'm not crossing. They are going to be your fan for life. They are not only going to buy from you, they are going to recommend you to their friends. They're going to talk about how cool you are. They're going to maybe start talking about their own beliefs as well and influencing people in their circles, right? When, when we're open about who we are on a basic level, it doesn't necessarily even have to be politics. What we end up doing is we end up scaring away the people who are not right for us. And we call in the people who are so aligned to us, who we would so enjoy working with, who we would feel so proud in working with and supporting. And let me tell you, there's nothing more magical. There's nothing more magical. I've. I've worked with so many incredible humans to start their businesses. I've helped them get to a hundred thousand, a hundred thousand dollars a year. I've helped them get to $600,000 a year. I've helped them like have their very first $40,000 month right? And knowing that they're going to turn around and support the right candidates that are going to support women's rights, that are going to support LGBTQ + rights, and everything that I believe in feels so much better than worrying that they might be turning around and voting against my interests and actually voting against their own interests as well. All right? So I know there's a lot of beliefs out there that talking about politics in your business can be really harmful. Stop listening to it, okay? Stop listening to people who are just fear mongering because they want you to up. Shut, shut up. Okay? That's essentially what they want. They want you to just shut up. They want you to stop bringing things up that makes them uncomfortable. Other people's comfort is not your responsibility, okay? Your responsibility is to yourself and making sure that you're voting in your best interests. Your responsibility is to your community to make sure that you are creating an environment that is as safe as humanly possible for everyone around you. And your responsibility is also to your future and the future that we all share on this planet. All right? Other people's comfort does not make that list, okay? Not even by, by a hair. It's not even close. All right, so share about your politics, talk about who you're voting for and tell me how it goes. Tell me the conversations sparks. Tell me the people who, who DM you and say, hey, listen, like, I can't comment because of work, but like, I love that you're sharing this. I love that you're talking about this. It happens to me all the time. And know that if you get any bad reactions, they were never going to be your client anyway. And even in the slimmest little itty bitty chance that they were going to be your client, it they would not have felt good to work with, I promise you. Alex Cooper, who is the talent of the Call Her Daddy podcast, I haven't really followed her. I've known who she is for a while, but, like, only because one of my clients really likes her. She recently had Kamala Harris on the podcast. And she talked a lot about women's rights, which makes so much sense for her brand. You know, she talks about a lot of taboo stuff. But anyway, so she. There's like all these headlines out there that she lost all these followers. Well, guess what? People actually looked at the numbers of how many followers she lost. Both, both from her personal account and the Call her daddy account. And I think it only equaled like 4,100. 4,100. Like less than 4,100. I think it was like 4,086 followers. She lost. She has millions of followers, right? She gained something like 1500. And I was one of them, right? So, like, it actually didn't hurt her brand at all. It actually made her that much easy, that much easier to be loyal to and to be perfectly aligned to. And for people like me to, like, really start, like, listening to what she's putting out, knowing that she shares the same values as me. All right, so you get to do that, too. You get to do that in your business. You get to be brave. We get to stop being weenies, right? Start being brave and just go for it. You can do this. All right? If you have not made a plan to go vote, do it. Make sure, especially if you're in a state where they are, like, ridding people from the voting registration lists, make sure that you're registered, right? Go, like, check it out. You can just Google, how do I make sure I'm registered in my state? There's going to be instructions, okay? Don't make it too complicated for yourself. Literally, just Google. Use the Google machine. Make a plan to vote. If you can vote early, please do. If you can volunteer, please do. We need it. We need it. We cannot let this be close. All right? We need a landslide. So there's no weirdness like we had on January 6th. I'm just gonna. You know what I'm talking about. You know what this means. Anyway, if you can get involved. I've personally been getting involved. I've been door knocking, which I know sounds terrifying, but let me tell you, if you want to get good at sales, go door knocking for a candidate. All right? It's actually really cool because there's a lot of technology that they use on the campaigns that, you know, allows for you to only knock on doors of people who are known Democrats or independents, right? So you're not like, putting yourself in a situation where you might be talking to, like, a gun toting Trumper. Or you can also make phone calls to swing states like if you don't live in a state where it's really going to make a difference, like California, Massachusetts, like if it's all pretty liberal, you can actually like log in to a phone banking platform with the Democratic Party and phone bank to Pennsylvania and to Wisconsin and to New Hampshire. And let me tell you. Yeah, I know, it feels like that's terrifying. They make it so easy. There's a script that you're reading, no one on the other end is like expecting you to deliver it perfectly either. Right? And here's the impact that that can have. Okay? There's the four part touch. That makes it like four to five more, four times more likely that someone's going to go and vote. Okay? So if they get a phone call, all right, that reminds them of the vote. They're more likely to go vote if they get someone knocking on their door. Okay? That's step two. If they get a piece of literature dropped off to their house, not in the mail, but dropped off to their house, obviously, as if someone had gone there just to deliver that piece of literature. And number four, if they get a mailer, right. What we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure that every Democrat and liberal leaning person gets out and votes. And guess what? You can help with any of these three things. You can make phone calls, okay? You can go and door knock. You can go and canvas and drop literature. All right, Those three things, you know, the mailers the campaigns have covered, we don't have to worry about that. But those three things, like imagine if you go and knock on 100 doors between now and November 5th. Imagine of those hundred people, you get 10 people to vote. Imagine if we have 100 people who do that. That's a thousand people. That's a thousand votes, right? It's not insignificant. It can make a massive difference if we win these states. All right? And then we can get working on getting rid of the Electoral college. In my dreams. Okay. Anyway, I can smell dinner wafting to me, so I have to go. But thank you so much for being here. Rice and Rye Crystal CT Fuller Sean John Mr. Infinity, AI Jose WTF? Wendy Jim Hart Alex Vincenzo Wildflower Deb Cham Hurts 75 Michael I just can't even. Thank you guys for joining over on Tick Tock. And for those of you who've been watching on other platforms, I can't tell from Streamyard who has been here, but thank you so much for being here and I hope if this has inspired you to start talking about your politics this has inspired you to really start those conversations with people in your world and to get involved. We need it. And do not forget to vote. Okay? Tell me that you've made your plan to vote. DM me. I want to know. Anyway, I love you all. I hope you have an amazing Saturday night. And I will see you all tomorrow. Tomorrow. Bye.