Welcome to 15 Minute Freelancer, your snack-sized guide to being your own boss and building a business and life you love. I'm your host, Louise Shanahan. My LinkedIn bio says I'm a freelance health copywriter. But for the next 15 minutes, I'll be tickling your ears with practical strategies, behind the scenes stories, and nuggets o' wisdom so you can create a freelance business that works for you. Whether you're just starting out or you've been self-employed for a while, I'll be right here with you to help me navigate the ups and downs of freelancing life. So, grab a coffee relax and join me for 15 minutes of freelancing fun. Don't forget to hit subscribe! 

Hello, freelance friends. How are you today? This week, I've been thinking a lot about the shadow side of online marketing. I've been listening to the CBC podcast, Escaping Nxium, which was a kind of self-help, personal development cult type of thing that was in the news a couple of years ago. And by pure coincidence, this week, I've also been watching the dark side of the online marketing world, and the cult of the celebrity marketing entrepreneur, slowly unravel on Instagram. For more on that, I suggest you check out Rachael Kay Albers’ highlights on Instagram and the Duped podcast with Maggie Patterson and Michelle Mazur. They've been making connections between some of the big names in the online marketing world and kind of drawing the lines between these huge influencers and how they amplify each other's voices and endorse each other's programmes, to the point that it feels like a bit of a cult. You can't criticise them, you need to pay to be part of their clique by joining their masterminds, and when one of them gets called out for something shady it all just kind of goes a bit quiet. I'll not get into the details here. But let's just say I'm feeling like I want to burn down large parts of my bookcase! 

I wanted to use this episode to consider how this darker side of online marketing plays out for freelancers specifically, and how we can steer clear of it or at least navigate around it. I'll try not to get too ranty. You know, I like to keep things action-focused. But this is a huge topic. And I've been jotting notes in my Evernote app all week. So I don't think I'm going to be able to cover everything I want to, I just want to maybe start or continue a conversation that's already happening in the online business world and see what it means for freelancers. And if you're interested in this, do let me know and we can dig into it further. Because there's so much to cover here. 

I think it's relevant for us as freelancers because a lot of us are selling creative or marketing services. And if we're not, we're probably marketing ourselves online. So it matters to our clients and it matters to us. It's likely that we'll have crossed paths with the big online marketing influencers and their online marketing made easy type programmes. Notice I'm not naming any of them. DM me if you like. 

I think there are three big reasons why paying attention to the cult of online marketing matters to us as freelancers. Number one, it makes the whole marketing industry look shady. We don't want to be seen as sleazy salespeople ourselves, which puts us off selling, which in turn harms our business. Number two, it harms us as consumers because we don't get the results we were promised after we invest in these courses and programmes, and maybe even worse, if it turns out to be a really negative experience. And number three, we should be trying to make our industry better. I was in a freelancing coaching group a few years ago where they told us to “charge your worth” (whatever that means), but then advised us to outsource some of our work to low paid freelancers on Fiverr and Upwork, which just feels really greasy to me. One way to make our industry better is to figure out what it means to charge our worth, and then also pay our subcontractors and other freelancers fairly too. That's not really controversial, is it? Let's pay it forward. 

So what do we mean when we talk about the shady side of online marketing anyway? Every so often, there's a flurry of activity and debate online about the evils of bro marketing and sleazy sales tactics and the promise of a shift towards more ethical marketing. And I see this a lot because I'm in a part of the internet with lots of copywriters and course creators and business coaches. And it sometimes feels like a bit of a pyramid scheme because people sell courses on how to sell courses. Business coaches sell coaching to help you sell business coaching. It’s very weird when you think about it, like, where is the actual business happening in this pyramid scheme? There's nothing wrong with coaching or courses or online marketing in general, but there's definitely an ecosystem of celebrity entrepreneurs who are held up as examples for us to follow. And when you dig into it, everything is not always what it seems. 

The sales tactics is one side of it. You know, the shameless and manipulative use of false scarcity and false urgency, the pushy sales funnels with messaging that make you feel like you're a total loser if you don't sign up. They talk about those seven and eight figure businesses that “you could have too if you just buy their course.” But you're usually not getting the full story of where that money comes from. If it's even there. They're making promises that they won't deliver on. 

And because we want to grow our businesses and figure out how to solve all these different challenges in our freelance business, we're susceptible to the suggestion that there might be an easy solution. I'm definitely susceptible to recommendations by one expert about another expert’s programme. That's the very definition of social proof, isn't it? We want to grow our businesses, we want to advance our knowledge and skills and get better at what we do and provide a better service to our clients. We know we need to market ourselves. And all of that is hard work. So we're open to ideas and advice on how to do it the best way. We want to be in the know and have the insider secrets. But as my online pal Amy Nolan says, all of this is just keeping us feeling “not quite confident enough” so we stay reliant on their advice and keep buying their programmes. 

These sales tactics do work. That's why people do them. And I do think there's some nuance to it. As I've said before, selling isn't bad in itself. You're running a business, you need to connect with people who pay for your service. That's a simple exchange of value. That's how it works. It can and should be a relationship that's built on mutual respect. Money and trust and authenticity can all sit nicely together. The problem is when we're being sold a lie about running a business, and we don't realise until it's too late. And I think that's what makes a lot of us uncomfortable about selling a lot of the time. We don't want people to think that we're like these hustling hucksters. 

Another issue is the culture of toxic positivity, which comes with a lot of these online marketing gurus, which stops us from criticising them, and makes us feel like it's our fault if we don't get those results. I'm talking about things like hustle culture, messages about taking messy action, you know, you've heard that one a lot. Manifesting your destiny, everything is figureoutable, you know, just “do what I did and you too, can have six or seven or eight figure business.” If you don't succeed, there's something wrong with your mindset. It's that push to invest in your business, or you're not a serious business owner. Yeah, all of these online marketing celebrities kind of say the same things here: you have to pay to play, you have to invest to grow, steal my scripts, and you too can earn money while you sleep. It’s not a million miles away from cults like Nxium. 

And the celebrity entrepreneurs market themselves as our friends, as boss babes, as the guy next door so we know, like and trust them, and think “they're just like me, maybe I can do that too.” But the problem is that what worked for them won't work for everyone. And if you buy their course, and you don't get the results you hope for that leads to shame, blame, burnout and disappointment, when in reality, they're either not telling you how they really achieved it themselves. They didn't really achieve those things anyway, or they're ignoring all the advantages that they have, and the obstacles that other people have that might get in the way of just having an abundance mindset. 

And that's not always ill intentioned, I don't want to tar them all with the same brush. You know, I'm conscious of this too, when I'm talking to you about showing up consistently to market yourself. I also sometimes forget that this is easier for me as someone without any health issues or without any children running around, or without cultural considerations around visibility or whatever it is that might make doing that work more challenging. So again, on their own those messages about abundance and mindset and growing your business aren't necessarily bad. But when they're pushed on us in a kind of manipulative way, and we can't replicate them ourselves, simply by following the instructions that were sold, then we have an issue, don't we? 

Okay, enough ranting I only have 15 minutes and I'm really conscious that I'm only going to be able to scratch the surface on this. I kind of just want to dip a toe in the water here. You know the issues. What can we do about it? How do we avoid getting sucked in? 

So the first thing I think, is to think critically. Ask questions when you're thinking of signing up for someone's course or programme. Don't feel afraid to ask around and get other people's perspectives and quit if you're not feeling it. There's no shame in that at all. And so that's the next one. Avoid the shame game. Running your own business can be full of challenges, but you're doing your best. Some things work, some things don't. We keep learning. That's it. There's no shame in something not working out. 

The next thing is to find your community. If you're following people online who make you feel “less than” about yourself or about your freelance business just don't follow them. They don't matter. If you get that FOMO feeling when you see the apparent success of all these big marketing influencers and their cult followings, and all your freelance friends are talking about them, just look away. Focus on your own business, and the activities that you enjoy most within it. Find the people who inspire you and support you and champion you. In fact, go and listen to my episode with Sophie Cross – Episode 10 – for more on how to find your freelance community and be part of that. 

And next, define your own version of success. This one probably needs a whole episode on its own. Don't get sucked into the idea that in order to have a successful business, you must hit certain financial milestones or have a certain number of followers or keep growing your income month on month. Like that might be success for some people. And if it is for you, then that's fine. But you have to decide for yourself what matters most to you. And success might be something completely different to you. 

I also think we should speak honestly about our experiences. We should share the ups and downs. You know, that's kind of what I'm trying to do here. I'm trying to just share what my experience is as a freelancer. Some of it’s good, some of it’s bad. Some of it you might want to try for yourself, and maybe it will work. Maybe it won't! You might hear me talk about something and think, “yeah okay, that's nice for you. I'm not gonna do that.” That's fine. I think we should just be speaking honestly, about what we're all doing. We don't want to endorse courses and programmes that didn't really work. So speak up when you see online marketing influencers behaving badly. That sounds like it should be a Channel 5 documentary. 

And we should avoid perpetuating it in our own marketing. We should think critically about what messages we’re putting out, who we’re following and whose voices we’re amplifying. I'm going to be reviewing my website shortly. This has been on my to-do list for so long. And it's really bad that I've not done it yet. To see where some of these phrases have snuck into my subconscious, a little cult marketing audit, if you will. So maybe something like that could work for you, too. 

So what do you think? Have you noticed the cult of online marketing? Do you feel like all these courses and coaching programmes are a bit of a pyramid scheme sometimes? Have you got any war stories that you'd like to share? As I say, I feel like I've just scratched the surface today. But it's something that I'm thinking about a lot at the moment and I would love to hear your thoughts. So please find me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Let me know what you think. Subscribe to the podcast and share it if there's someone that you think would be interested in this too. Thanks. See you next week.

You've been listening to 15 Minute Freelancer with me, Louise Shanahan, freelance health copywriter and content marketer at thecopyprescription.com. If you enjoyed this, please hit subscribe, leave a review or share it with a freelance friend. And if you've got a freelancing question you want answered on the podcast find me and say hi on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Thanks, and until next time, happy freelancing!