 I've now been in business for 13 years and I have had the honor of coaching, consulting with at this point over a thousand people. I've lost account, taught many, many students, worked with many, many clients. And I have noticed basically three ways to approach solopreneurship, which most of you watching this might consider yourselves a solopreneur. You would love to, you are working on building a true livelihood, you know, using your skills, your passions, your interests, your authentic voice and personality to be able to make money, make a living that feels worthwhile and fulfilling. So in short, being a solopreneur and because you don't have, you know, venture funding or anything like any other investment, you're kind of bootstrapping it from your own savings or your own maybe family support or something like that. OK, so three ways of approaching solopreneurship. Ready? Let me know which one you find yourself doing. The first way, and by the way, these are kind of like the ends of the spectrum. I'll say one in the spectrum and then the other in the spectrum and then there's a middle way. So one end of the spectrum is wait to respond. We've heard that phrase before, wait to respond. I always think that's kind of interesting because, yes, if you wait long enough, the universe will give you some opportunities, some interesting contacts, some client inquiries, some synchronicities that will allow you to, you know, get more experience in your work and make some money and things like that. But wait to respond is really how so many service providers do it. We don't even hear about them because they usually just get a few clients a year, maybe, and they aren't really making. Obviously, they're not supporting their livelihood from their service business. They're just it's more like a hobby and or, you know, they're they wish it was more than just a hobby, but they are afraid of doing marketing or the resistant to doing marketing. Maybe that describes some of you or they're not consistent with it. So they're basically waiting for the universe. They believe maybe you believe that I'm a good person. I'm I'm I'm connected to my divine source. I try my best to help other people. And shouldn't I just get the client inquiries and cliently? I'm just such a nice person. I try to help others. Shouldn't I get enough clients? Shouldn't the universe be good to me? Don't I have good karma? Yeah, you you probably are building great karma, but it might not appear in this life in the next life. You might be really lucky and just be able to wait and get all the clients you want. But maybe not in this life or maybe it's in three or five lifetimes from now. So we don't that karma doesn't necessarily work that fast. So wait to respond is a very well, it's it's the default, right? Like if you if you don't learn marketing, if you don't take initiative, if you don't stretch beyond your comfort zone in business, then you are waiting to respond and well, how is it going? For most of us, it it never goes past a hobby level type of business. And it might take you 10 years, 15 years to get enough experience where you're more confident and now you're going to start doing your marketing, something like that. Right. So wait to respond 10 or 15 years. And then you might jump over to the other side of the spectrum, which is what I'm going to call funnel hustling funnel hustling. So, you know, you you you built up some experience, you know, serving clients, maybe waiting to respond. And you've gotten some opportunities in the last 15 years. And now you're tired of barely scraping by in your business. You're like, you know what? I'm good enough to have more clients. I should have more clients. The world needs my skills and they do the world does. So then you start to learn marketing. And when you start, you probably are going to see the ads and hear from people who are funnel hustlers. And what I mean is they say, all right, listen, you can get all the we can help you get all the clients you want. It's so easy. You just simply let us build you a marketing funnel, a sales pipeline. Let us do the ads for you. We will do the calls for you. You just sit back and and get the clients. Oh, and by the way, it's it's five thousand dollars or eight thousand or ten thousand or more. But you just sit back and wait for us to get you the clients. Yeah, we'll do the marketing for you. You don't have to do the marketing. We'll do everything for you. We'll we'll do the we'll help you with your branding, your copywriting. We're going to create the funnel for you. We're going to do the even feel the calls for you. We'll we'll do the outreach for you. We'll do the ads for you. Just pay us the the, you know, two thousand a month, five thousand or ten thousand or more. And so that's funnel hustling where whether you pay someone tens of thousands to do it or you try to do it yourself. It's basically this idea that if you just create the right sales funnel, which is what is the sales funnel? It is a carefully crafted set of experiences for a for someone to become your client. So they might see a Facebook and Instagram ad or LinkedIn ad or YouTube ad. You know, they're just surfing their regular social media or they might have somebody they trust already, you know, promote you because through a joint venture or something. But it's basically someone somehow discovers you usually through an advertisement or through a collaboration with someone you're already following that person's already on someone's email list and they promote you. So someone discovers you. OK, that's the first part of the funnel awareness. And then they discover you and then you are saying, hey, you can solve all your problems and reach all your dreams if you just attend my webinar and the webinar is, you know, come and see when the next webinar is and you go to the webinar page. And it's, you know, there's a webinar eight minutes from now or or 14 minutes from now. Oh, my gosh, I better sign up, you know, and it's really a replay. It's a replay. Sometimes they're honest that it's a replay and sometimes they lie to you that they they pretend it's live. And these days, you can use a chat box to make it seem like a live webinar. It's it's easy. It's been easy for years, actually. And so it's basically it's a setting up a machine, supposedly, right? Setting up a machine to, like, interest new people, get them even more interested in your work by having a webinar experience or having a video series or having a series of emails or other kinds of communications that show them why they need your type of service and why you're you're the one to provide it. OK. So, you know, so that's the funnel. And then by the end of the funnel, they get to talk to you or talk to one of your salespeople who will sell them on your twenty five hundred dollar program or eight thousand dollar coaching or whatever it is that that you you'd like to get clients for. Doesn't that sound so good? Yeah, couldn't wouldn't that be great? Why? Why don't we all do this funnel hustling? Well, you know why? You know why we don't all do this because most of it fails. Did no one tell you this? It was supposed to be an ATM machine. It was supposed, meaning, oh, I just sit there and take money all day. You know, get your clients all day and you could sit back and, you know, maybe fill out a workbook and then we'll do everything for you. All the design and copywriting and is does that sound great? Don't you have ten thousand dollars? If you had ten thousand, would you spend money on that to have everyone do it for you? The marketing, you have all your clients? Of course, who wouldn't want that? We all dream of that. But why? Why doesn't it just work for everyone who do who does this? It doesn't work for most of the people who do this. Actually, to be honest, I have talked to, again, hundreds of people who've done funnel hustling as a service, but also have clients. They, you know, the clients who told me they paid tens of thousands for these things. And I can't remember one person who has said it's consistently worked. Yes, I paid the fifteen thousand and that's it. That's all I had to pay and I've gotten all the. No, usually I paid the ten thousand and I feel like I was lied to because it didn't work. Maybe it got me one or two clients, but that was an expensive ten thousand dollar lesson. And I'm just thinking, my ten thousand dollars, you really spend ten thousand on that. My premium program, my most, the most you can spend with George Cow is approximately twenty five hundred two thousand five hundred dollars per year. So you can be with me for four years at my highest level of service at my greatest level of support on my courses. And that would be four years for ten thousand. And you would have learned so much more and actually gotten a lot done. But it's like people, people, and then they feel they paid the ten or fifteen thousand and they're like, my God, I, I feel like that was completely unauthentic, not really. It's not really showing my voice and how I want to show up in the world. But I trusted these people who said, don't worry, we just have to do it this way. This is how marketing works. Don't worry about it. This is how they all do it. All the successful people do it this way. You just sit back and let us get your clients. I know it feels a little strange to you and a stretch. You had a stretch beyond your comfort zone. Don't be so shy. Don't be, you know, don't be such limiting beliefs. Have more of an abundance mindset. No, of course we want an abundance mindset. Of course we want to stretch beyond our comfort zone, but we never have to manipulate people like the way that the funnel marketers are teaching you to do. Stop with the funnels, people. Seriously, what is a funnel? It's a carefully crafted manipulation system. Let's just call it what it is. George, don't you have a funnel? Isn't this video part of a funnel? No. Why is this video part of a funnel? Am I trying to sell you something? No, you watch the video and that's all you need. You don't have, you can go on for the rest of your life. You, you watch this video and so what? I'm not selling you anything. I'm not going to say at the end of this video. Now you can go to my website and sign up for this wonderful webinar or sign up for this wonderful report. No, I'm not going to. I watch any of my videos. Do I say that? No, I don't have a funnel. What I do have is an organic discovery system. I do use paid ads. I'll tell you that I use. I spend usually hundreds, sometimes thousands a month on paid ads. But most of my ads are content like this that don't try to sell anything. Yeah, most of my advertising dollars is content just like this. And so I believe in blessing the world through content trying to change minds or help them in a way that I believe is helpful and inspire, educate. I spend a lot of advertising dollars on this stuff. And I believe if someone is educated or enough people are educated, a few of them will go, let me see what this guy's website's about. And then they go to my website and they don't have to sign up for the newsletter. It doesn't. There's no pop up. There's no funnel anywhere. They go to my website. They can check out whatever they want. Oh, there's courses. Sure, I'll take a course or whatever or not. Or I'll read some articles or I'll watch them, whatever. There's no there's no design system to get you from first, take this thing. And then after that, I want you to take this. I want first sign up for the email list. And then you'll get this email and this email that's designed to sell you into my low cost product. And then that's designed to sell you in the higher thing. And that's designed to sell you into the higher thing. That is a manipulation engine. And that is not innocent. It's not generous. It's not authentic. And also, by the way, it's not effective. Like I said, I've known hundreds of people who use funnels and most of them just about all of them, I could say fail. They spent so much money, time and manipulation to destroy their brand. And it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Right. I mean, yeah, it gets you a few clients, but that's a huge cost to get you a few clients with a lower reputation, right? Lower reputation and weird feelings in your conscience to say, did I, that's an authentic marketing, right? It's like it damages your conscience. It damages your reputation. And you probably spent a lot of money and time on it. Stop with the funnel hustling because it's too much damn work. Number one, and number two, it doesn't work. And number three, it's not good for your soul. And in whatever way you want to say that, it's not good for your soul, soulfulness and authenticity in your brand and marketing, but it's also not good for your soul, spiritually speaking, and how you how you look at other people, how you because what a funnel treats people like a number. A funnel treats people like, oh, just move them through this. And then they'll like an ATM machine. Ah, now they're going to buy. Now I can do my spiritual work. George, I know, no, no, you've misunderstanding, George. I use the funnel only because once they get in front of me, then I'll do my spiritual and authentic work with them. I'm really authentic when I'm with my clients. So therefore you're not authentic in your marketing then? Is that what you're trying to tell me? Why can't you be authentic the whole time? But it doesn't work, George. Your way doesn't work. I have to use the funnels to, you know, sure I have to do some manipulation, you know, to get my clients and then I'll be authentic and then I'll be a good person. I have to be a bad person first and then I'll be a good person. I have to use a means to an end, which is the beginning of wrongdoing. Means to an end mindset, which is I'll have to do this shortcuts, manipulation, deception, hype, scarcity, stuff, FOMO and then I'll be a good person and I'll be, then you'll see that I'm a good person. It doesn't work, life doesn't work like that, does it? Plus it doesn't even work most of the time. It's too expensive of a lesson. No, so let me tell you the middle way. So I told you the way to respond, which is what most solopreneurs do, which is very sad to me. It takes 10, 15 years to finally get sick of it and say, I got to do the funnel thing, right? So they jump way over to the other side because that's the peak that those are the marketers that they're getting messages from and they spend money on them. And after you spend all your money, then you come to George Cow, which is sad for me, but that's what happens to many of you, right? You first lose most of your savings waiting to respond and then you spend the remainder of your savings on this funnel hustling people and then with your final $2,000 you spend it with me, hopefully, if you only have 2,000 left, I don't want your money at all, right? Like you should not be spending money at that point. But I've seen this so many times that I just, I mourn for so many soulful solopreneurs because they just get, they swing from one side to the funnel side and then they get so disillusioned, discouraged and cynical and they finally find me and say, George, I wish I would have been with you 15 years ago rather than now, which I've spent all this time and money and now let's find the middle way. But essentially that's how a lot of people find authenticity is they have to try many different things and maybe hit rock bottom before they then say, commit to, okay, I'm gonna commit to authenticity. I'm gonna commit to a joyful self-discipline, realizing that, oh, okay, I can still be a hippie and be a disciplined hippie. I can still be soulful and be a consistent soulful person. Like I don't, it's somehow structure and discipline is not the enemy. I've written out, now you learn, oh, structure and discipline and being consistent and being somewhat robotic, not AI robotic, but someone, that's not the enemy, right? That's not the enemy. The enemy is your own illusions, your own delusions and your own patterns that are not helping, helpful to your soul's growth. That's the enemy if there is such an enemy. So the middle way says this. If the middle way is a way, if I may say, to marketing enlightenment, marketing enlightenment, I'm not claiming to be enlightened either in spirituality or in marketing or whatever I'm not claiming to be enlightened, but I do claim to have discovered a path that I feel really good about that's leading me towards the land of enlightenment. And that path is to practice expressing your authentic skills, experiences, personality, voice on a consistent basis in service to your creativity and in service to others' enlightenment and to others' inspiration, to others' encouragement. And by showing up consistently through content and through offers, you find marketing enlightenment. And that is basically when you no longer give a damn about what, just like normal enlightenment, you don't give a damn about what others think. On the one hand, and you secondly, you care so deeply for every being in this world. Like that's like this paradox of enlightenment. On the one hand, you don't give a damn what people think about you and what you do and how you show up in the world. You don't give a damn. On the other hand, number two, you care so deeply your heart breaks for every suffering being in this world and you see the potential of every being to become their most thriving actualized selves. So the middle way is to no longer fight against structure, your own created structure, not the structure I give you, no. Every time I teach a structure, I always tell people, please feel free to completely rearrange this into your own pattern. That is most authentic to you. I'm just giving you some possible, you know, playing blocks, Play-Doh. I'm just giving you some of this and a possible, yo, you could take this Play-Doh and create a castle from it. Or you could play through the Play-Doh and create a little garden, a fruit garden, a fruit orchard from it. You could use the Play-Doh however you want. I'm just showing you how I created it. But then you also see people who work with my stuff, they create a little drawbridge. They create a little family of elves. Everybody takes my structure that I give them and then they rearrange it, they play with whatever way, but it's still a structure. It's a structure and a system that reliably encourages and activates you to show up and explore your authenticity in service to humanity. And by doing that consistently, you will find you don't need a funnel. You don't need to wait to respond. You are continually growing every day and every month, at least in your creativity and soon also in your client leads because you're showing up consistently with your content and with your offerings. Both are important and you're always noticing which ones work. It's not just content, content, content, content forever and never selling anything. You know me, I mean, look, watch what I do. I do content, content all the time, but I also sell to you all the time. Have you noticed that? Every Wednesday, go to my Facebook business page. I sell there every single, not every Wednesday, most Wednesdays, you'll see me selling something or pre-selling something. Oh, I have a course coming up. What do you think about these topics? What do you think about this title? I'm always selling or pre-selling something on Wednesdays on my business page. It's consistent. That's what you also need to find a rhythm that you can dedicate yourself to. Doesn't have to be my rhythm, but it's gotta be yours. It's gotta be a structure and a rhythm that activates your consistency of showing up in service to your higher creativity and also in service to the growth of your ideal clients. So if you do that, that's the middle way. That's the middle way. It takes patience in the beginning for sure as all middle ways do, right? It's not as exciting as one way and it's not as completely inactive as the other way. It's the middle way, but it takes patience, right? It doesn't seem as glitzy and exciting as the funnel hustling way, but it works for the long-term because you build your conscience, you build your integrity and generosity and skills. And therefore that also builds your reputation with your network and with everyone who starts to follow you. So I hope this is interesting and helpful. And I look forward always to seeing what your reactions are, your thoughts from watching this. I look forward to seeing it below. Thanks so much.