Enough, not an Empire
Where I Get On My Soapbox about Micro-preneur Financial Goals, Early Oughts Coaching Bros, Giant Multinationals, and How We Can Do Things Differently
Years ago, as an infant, I studied Political Science for a year (at a time when I clearly did not know myself, what was I thinking?) I remember spending hours in the glorious Rutherford study hall at the U of A, trying to comprehend a 20-page article about how the political empires of old were in the process of being replaced by more economically-based empires, in the form of multinationals.
It was a concept new-to-naïve-me and to many at the time--more of a prophecy, or a theory for our buddies across the quad in Business—than a noticeable reality of our daily lives as Humanities or Social Science students. In the year I was studying, I was still able to buy clothes made in my home country of Canada on a student budget, for example.
Well, I get it now. ‘The sun never sets on the British Empire’ has become ‘the sun never sets on the places where H&M sells their clothes’ or ‘it’s always sunrise in a country where people are driving a Ford.’
I benefit from so many aspects of a global economy. It’s brilliant to have the tools to communicate my creations around the world: I am not limited to my own city or country to find like-minded and like-hearted souls, who resonate with my business’s values and want to purchase my services.
And now that the lid’s been off the Pandora’s box of a global economy for many decades, I don’t think — short of a major disaster I can’t even bear to contemplate — that we’re going back. We have to somehow live, and earn a living, in what we’ve collectively created.
That said, I spent 15 years witnessing my partner in the so-called traditional, globalized corporate world.
I watched how a mid-sized, fun, potential-laden domestic company he started with, changed when it was subsumed in a multinational firm whose numbers- worshipping, shareholder-driven tactics looked to me like a less bloody, more subtle, but still empire-focused and acquisition-driven version of the Viking (or Egyptian, or Greek, or Roman, or British, or Spanish . . . ) conquests.
The violence of raping and pillaging now have become less visible, either by virtue of happening in a neighbourhood you never go to, a country on the other side of the world (for Westerners)—or, more insidiously—in people’s psyches, where they take their invisible toll on our life force and our health. But the brutishness is still there: in real time, or in ghostly echoes.
As someone who has spent the last 25 years working in healing, teaching, communications, micro-entrepreneurship, and the arts, it is relatively easy to point the finger at big corporate multinationals, whose existence have no doubt supported my living, but not driven it.
Less easy is to look inward at the subtle yet insidious shadow of empire-building tactics in my own field of work. But it’s there.
Twenty years ago, in the early ‘oughts,’ the big-time business coaches I followed were pushing you to set up your helping/healing/coaching work to sell- sell- sell, and ‘you too can make 6 figures per year if you do it like me and you work hard enough’. Many of the coaching tactics I experienced were characterized by condescension, fear-mongering, gaslighting, and pushing on wounds like shame and not-enough-ness.
Not to put too fine a point on it: in my experience, some of those 6-figure bros & gals behaved in ways that I would classify as manipulative, and laced with contempt.
A personal example that happened once, with one old dinosaur of sales coaching.
I was describing my peculiar challenge of not having enough time and energy to grow my business, manage and recover from a health condition, and do ALL the housework (my partner was doing 0% of chores at the time). I was genuinely stumped. But did Mr. Coach refer me to time management systems, or help me to shift my expectations around what I could earn, figure out how to re-negotiate domestic tasks with my partner, or brainstorm other, less time-consuming ways to make money?
Nope. This guy chose to employ his unskillful, twisted version of a (legit) turn-around technique from Byron Katie’s ‘The Work’ to gaslight me. I’ll spare you the details, but the essence of it was that I could solve my problem by simple mindset. According to him, I should just decide it was OK for me to clean the house more often, instead of ‘projecting’ that onto my partner.
(The gendered themes of this are not lost on me, but that’s a topic for another day).
Another so-called ‘coach’ all but called me a coward and a loser when I declined to implement a strategy he suggested, which wasn’t a fit for me and would have been completely inappropriate for my work. Apparently, I wouldn’t be successful if I couldn’t take the ‘risk’ he was describing.
Change your mind so you can keep working hard(er), keep employing strategies and tactics that don’t fit your context, scale at all costs, take risks that feel wrong in your gut, push your compromised body harder. . .all in service of achieving the 6-figure lifestyle, which these dudes claimed to have mastered, right?
(And which gradually became the ‘multiple 6 figures’ lifestyle, or the ‘7-figures lifestyle’ of the 2010’s business coaching programs)
We practice what we learn, of course. So these themes became normalized in the sales pages and high investment programs of even the most well-meaning players in the solopreneurial industry. And I started to see them creeping into the sales pages of holistic health practitioners, life coaches, writing teachers—oh my.
I want us to ask ourselves: wherever, however, and from whomever did we absorb the idea that helping, healing, coaching, teaching, local market gardening, sustainable sewing, or making art was supposed to be built on the same goals as Empire?
That more is better, that big is a mark of success, that we should work in opposition to our sensitive introverted natures to succeed, that brutish behaviour has moral value if it gets us what we want, that scalability is the holy grail of. . .what?
Enough.
Literally: Enough. An alternative to falling unconsciously into the shadows of empire-mindset self- and social- harm is to consciously build our businesses on a foundation of, ‘What is ‘Enough?’
Enough, to provide safe healthy accommodation, quality food, excellent health care, relevant education, and adequate rest time for ourselves and our families. Enough to pay a living wage for the products and services we value, support things like local artisans, give to a charitable organization or two, host a yearly open house for all our neighbours. . . or whatever feels nourishing, to you.
‘Enough’ will be different for every person, depending which city or country you live in, what taxes you pay, whether you have national health care, how many family members you support, what your hobbies are.
‘Enough’ is about individual context, and sustainability for your business, and kindness to your customers. It has nothing to do with how someone else did it, or their financial goals; nor is it about what ‘you’ are worth as a human. It is not about our competitive envy of our peers, or greed, or the rampant consumerism of the shiny new object, or the shiny new business coaching program.
‘Enough’ is self-regulating. It teaches us how to trust ourselves.
In the School of Kind Business (SKB) curriculum, our pricing workbook is based on a foundation of ‘Enough.’ When I finally understood how to use ‘Enough’ as a foundation for pricing, a weight dropped away. I gained clarity on my goals, and — interestingly enough — on my niche. I could stand firmly behind being kind to myself, and my clients. My work started to flow in ways that I wouldn’t have imagined had anything to do with pricing.
‘Enough’ is not just a concept. It’s a practical strategy that is gathering momentum in micro entrepreneur spaces and trainings.
In our free content or paid curriculum, you will never see us talking about how much money we made, so you can too. You will not see a 6-week coaching program priced at multiple thousand dollars accompanied by a sales page that aims to convince you why it is ‘worth’ that. We’ll always encourage you to reach your potential, but we won’t push you to ‘scale up,’ unless that’s what you want to do. No way.
Choosing ‘Enough’ in a world of ‘More’ is a revolutionary act. It can change your entire relationship to your business. And if enough solo entrepreneurs choose it, that choice could change our collective culture, and even, one day — dare to dream — some of the more dysfunctional workings and assumptions of the broader economy.
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And if you are interested in our practical workbook *3 Days to Fair Trade Pricing (So You Can Earn Enough)*: please message us.