My Values + Feminist Business Practices
My Values +
Culture-Making
Business Practices
believe...
that we are all culture makers and that we can use our culture making power deliberately, to create new realities for ourselves and our world.
Here are a few of the ways I try to do that in my own LIFE AND BUSINESS
Profit + Money
- I offer payment plans and I don’t charge any extra fees or interest for accessing payment plans. I think it is unjust.
- This is a business. I advertise. I market. You're going to see social posts and emails about my offers
- I don't pause the business or my marketing when there are tragic world events or crises and I push back on the expectation that I should.
1) My team still needs to get paid and my family still needs to eat
2) It is revealing that so many people expect that of independent small businesses (especially of women entrepreneurs) but not of blue-chip companies who are vastly more capitalized.
- I have a LOT of financial responsibilities — children, elders, extended family, team— so I need to earn a lot of money. I do this unapologetically.
- If any of this upsets someone, I am not for them
How (and When) I Offer Critique
- When I’m critiquing, I strive to name patterns, not people
- Because my focus is on patterns, not people, I will not comment on online controversies nor will I participate in "public humiliation spectacles"* on social media.
- I do not respond to attempts to discipline me if I'm quoting someone you disapprove of
* My thanks to Dr.Christine Marie for the language of "public humiliation spectacle" and "media misinformation/misrepresentation campaigns"
How I Respond to Tragedies, Wars & World Events
- When there are mass tragedies, my first efforts are direct and relational, which means they're often publicly invisible. I strive to offer my time, support, care and resources behind the scenes the people in my spaces who are most impacted by events. Just because something isn't visible on social media doesn't mean it is not happening
- When there is a crisis that is outside my zone of leadership & expertise -- which means I don't have useful analysis to contribute -- I deliberately get quiet so that I do not contribute noise that can obscure valuable signals from actual experts. In cases like this, my form of contribution is to signal-boost those experts rather than strive to overlay my voice or platform onto the situation (I'm not here to build clout off tragedy)
- I strive to only comment on events where I have leadership to offer AND, importantly, 'skin in the game'. To me, skin in the game is RISK. Is there a risk to me for getting involved? That's when I SHOULD get involved. If not, there's a risk of posturing, performing, or virtue-signalling and generating noise that obscures the voices we actually need to hear from
- I'm Canadian, so I usually don't have 'skin in the game' to comment on US politics. By that I mean there's no risk to me for comment and only reputational upside (clout). Armchair commentary on something where I have no analysis or risk, I get the reputational benefits of looking virtuous and righteous at no actual cost to me. And often, when Canadians comment on US culture/politics, we often end up acting smug and erasing our own failings from view. And, no. Once again, I'm not here to build clout off tragedies, signal the appearance of change or simulate change; I'm here to be effective in the places where I can actually be effective
- I am not a newspaper. I do not have the expertise, resources, bandwidth, or team to publish regular updates and commentary on the ever-intensifying crises impacting our world and communities
- I do not issue statements or position papers on international events or wars because (a) that is outside my zone of expertise & analysis and (b) because I am not an institution, Prime Minister, President or an elected government representative. I don't have the ability to directly intervene in world events -- but they do and it is literally their job to represent our will. That's the most effective place to direct our change-making energy: Let's call them. Email them. Write letters to them. They have a responsibility to legislate in our interests. Let's make sure they do that
- I do NOT stop selling during social crises because bills don't stop coming. It is not reasonable to expect indie providers with the least access to capital to stop their livelihoods in times when we need them most
- I specifically don't comment on mass shootings in the US because
- Again, I have no skin in the game
- Because I'm not a citizen, I have no ability to influence US legislators
- Research shows that the more media attention the massacre gets, the higher the likelihood that there will be a copycat shooting within 7 days. My silence is an attempt at harm-reduction
Solidarity, Self-Preservation,
and Culture-Making
- I believe in signal-boosting and sharing the work of the people influencing me (Citation is a culture-making practice; I’ve even footnoted a sales page!). There is so much brilliance in our community and it’s a joy to be part of it
- I do not to use mental/social triggers in high-risk sales situations
- I do not engage in money-shaming as a marketing tactic (or any kind of tactic!)
- If I cite or mention someone's work, it does not mean we know each other. It doesn't mean they even know I exist nor does it mean that they like me or approve of my work. Nor does it mean I endorse them unequivocally or that they endorse me. It means that there's a particular cultural thing that I'm trying to talk about and an idea or project of their's is relevant and I want to give credit where credit is due
- If I quote an idea from someone you object to, I am not obliged to respond to attempts to discipline me or silence me. If your concern is that there's been a call-out of this person, or you are responding to generalized claims of harm and are worried that I don't know about it: I probably do. I may have access to different information than you have or have come to a different conclusion than you have. We need to be able to tolerate differences in perspective rather than aiming for homogeneity and purity (neither of which have ever been liberatory)
- Please never substitute my judgement for your own. We don't have to agree or even like each other to respect each other's work.
- I do value good-faith critique and feedback from my co-travellers and will take the time to process it, learn from it, and integrate it (thank you!!!)
- If we know each other, I welcome your critique, feedback and correction. Call me! Email me! Text me! (If we know each other, you have my deets)
- If we don't know each other and you feel compelled to discipline me or sabotage my work, that's weird. I reserve the right to treat that as the unwelcome behaviour of an intrusive stranger and take protective measures. Instead, if my work is not for you, I invite you to unfollow me
- I won’t tolerate attempts to erase me or my work nor will I accept intellectually dishonest or personally malicious “arguments”. I believe in my body of work and I will protect it, and myself. That’s part of being a culture-maker.
One of the ways we contribute to the change we want to see in the world is by doubling down on our unique knowledge & gifts:
What do you know that you wish everyone knew?
What do you see that no one else sees?
What does no one escape you without learning?
My culture-making clients are already stoking change & building their people up, 1:1 or with one organization at a time, which is valuable & critically important work but also limits your reach *and you know it*.
I don`t want only a select few people to have access to the healing things you know and the transformational practices you teach...
I want more people — maybe even all of us, imagine that! — to heal and elevate and use their voices and feel good in their own skin and get out of physical pain and lose the shame and activate their power and get physically stronger and navigate society`s fear of illness & disability with power and feel brave enough to push back on the bullshit and get their message together and know they’re not the problem to be fixed but our society is, and, and, and.
In other words: I want you to put YOUR unique knowledge into the hands of more people, because we need it now more than ever.
And I don`t want you to be a martyr about it. You, broke, struggling and suffering is NOT how we co-create a future in which we all flourish.
**If the culture-maker running the business isn’t flourishing,
it’s not a culture-making business**
That`s why I created Goldmine: so you can learn in 9 weeks what it took me 15 years to figure out.
**Inside GOLDMINE you get**
• 9 Comprehensive & effective weekly video trainings so you can steadily build out your course without getting overwhelmed or stuck
• 4 monthly, 90-minute group coaching sessions so that you can get my eyes on your work and tightly dial it in
• An interactive workbook chock-full of potent exercises that actually generate your course design, modules & marketing messages
• A comprehensive, time-saving, good-decision-making Course Tech Selection Matrix that helps you compare course delivery platforms & tools so you can get going and get your course into the world, now
We start Nov 18. DM me for details.
Nov 13
Thought exercise: how many brilliant carousels from very smart content providers have you saved across the years?
Now: how many of those creators did you hire or buy a course from?
While the online space will tell you that you should give away your content and teach for free and eventually one day they’ll buy…
…the truth is, that system only works well for very-established content businesses WHO ALREADY HAVE A SIGNATURE COURSE plus a decade of material and entire marketing teams who slice-and-dice pre-existing material into tutorials & freebies day in and day out.
For the rest of us, teaching for free is way too much work for way too little ROI.
Plus it undermines our paid offers. The more access people have to you and your wisdom for free, the less likely they are to enrol in a program to learn from you.
EVEN WORSE: pouring all your energy into teaching for free eats up the exact time you could use to codify your knowledge into actual courses.
Coming back to those brilliant content creators making educational carousels...when I look at their bios, they rarely have courses.
Which is why they also often post about how little they earn compared to how much they teach.
Here`s how you escape this overteaching/underearning trap:
⚡You learn a game-changing, money-making course creation method that teaches you 3 practical, do-able ways to create curriculum & transformational courses RIGHT NOW instead of sitting on your ideas for years or wasting your life teaching for free online
⚡You use the *Translate Your Intuition Into Teachable Tools Process* to do, well, exactly that (this process is actually ridiculously simple but wildly effective in surfacing your knowledge and making it into tangible, teachable skills)
⚡You develop a compelling course promise that is absolutely unmissable to your dream client and gets them signing up on the spot AND clicks your whole course into focus *for you* so you know exactly what to teach and what not to (I’ve got a brilliant protocol you can use to do this fast)
And *that* is how you stop giving away your best ideas for free and start turning your wisdom into wealth.
This is the work I do in Goldmine. DM me for details.
Nov 12
Stellar courses don`t just happen but they NOT have to take a long time to create. Time is not the problem.
You also do NOT need to load everything you know into your courses or include a lot of extras & shiny things to make your programs appealing to clients.
In fact, overpacking your courses (which is why they take so long to create...) can be the exact reason clients might NOT succeed in your programs.
FACT: When multiple concepts are presented, people only retain about 37% of what was taught…
…so the more you add and offer to your classes in the hopes it`s helpful, the less people are actually able to metabolize your material.
EVEN WORSE: All those extras and bonus modules and visualizations (and, and, and) make your clients feel like they can’t keep up and are failing at your class (which does not make for repeat purchases...)
And I’m just going to say a thing: often we overdo our courses because we’re scared they won’t impress our clients...
But over-teaching creates under-learning and that`s *never* impressive.
Here are 2 game-changing ways to fix this, ASAP:
⚡💡🚀Instead of winging your course development & over-packing your courses with extraneous teachings, you follow a proven process to radically distill your content into only the absolute essentials WITHOUT watering-down or diluting your work because that`s what actually gets outrageous results for people and has them positively clamouring to sign up, now
⚡💡🚀You deviate from the standard group course containers everyone else uses and learn a system for creating innovative, hybrid course structures & tools that dramatically increase the likelihood your clients will actually complete your courses AND be successful at them (online courses have an 85% non-completion rate!!! But not in our house…)
This is the work I do in Goldmine and it`s why my clients stop sitting on their course ideas and start putting their supernova programs out into the world, where they can actually make a difference for your clients AND make money for you, every single day.
DM me for details or go to kellydiels.com/goldmine to sign up. We start next Monday, Nov 18.
Nov 11
