Business Tao with George Kao

I see a lot of aspiring business owners doing this:You’re waiting until you’re “ready” before you take the leap.A dear client asked me about the “thin line between readiness and procrastination.”After coaching hundreds of business owners, I can tell you this: ​Chances are, you are being fooled by your own brilliant mind. Feeling of “lack of readiness” is usually procrastination.**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2714183308801995 **Here’s the truth:I rarely feel “ready”.When I started writing this article, I felt maybe I wouldn’t have enough to say… maybe I should do more research or journaling or give it a few more days (or weeks) before I’m ready to start writing this.When making a video — at the moment I press “record” I feel like I could’ve spent another hour thinking about the topic.When I launch a course, I know I could spend several more months (or years!) researching the topic… but I remind myself that whatever I already know will be helpful to the students. We are usually much harsher on ourselves than our students / clients are.The founder of Linkedin, Reid Hoffman, famously said this:If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.I feel embarrassed often… because I create often.Every book that I publish, I feel slightly embarrassed by… but the reality is that if I waited until a book was “ready” I might never publish. Thankfully I do publish, because book after book, each one is getting better. I can always re-publish and re-launch a 2nd edition later… and I am already planning for it!Every course that I teach, I’m embarrassed by, but I also get feedback that makes the course better, year after year.I’m doing this for the long term journey of growth, not just short-term experiences of posting, publishing, launching.The creative process, the reality of building an authentic business, requires this continual practice:Transform fear into Love.I feel that we are being called by Spirit to recognize when we are feeling afraid in the creative process, and instead, reinterpret that emotion. Turn “fear” or “lack of readiness” into one or more of these…ExcitementPassionServiceCurious self-explorationAdventureTransform hesitation into Action.If I am creating something, and I feel hesitation, I now interpret it as a signal to take action, to just do it. To take the next step. To write the next sentence. To click “record” on the video. To press “publish”.Transform embarrassment into Surrender.After putting your work out there, you may feel embarrassed by it and want to delete it. Don’t.Practice surrendering to the process and you’ll grow a bit stronger, more confident, each time.I recently had this kind of experience: being embarrassed by something I put out there, and after confessing my feelings about it (while not deleting the embarrassing thing) I found that people didn’t judge me the way I had judged myself.It is a daily creative practice: transmuting fearful hesitation into loving action and surrendering to the process. Bit by bit, piece by piece, we become more courageous. We get wiser through action and experience.A little-known fact is that the creative person’s doubt... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

“I’m hoping that I can find a way to weave things together in a way that makes sense, resonates with buyers, feels enjoyable, and generates income.” — a client said.“That’s a lot of pressure on yourself,” I thought.Who says you need to weave all your interests together in a way that makes sense to anyone else, except for yourself? (You can have the most complicated vision of your work, as long as it makes sense to you.)**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2595142044033704 **What if being financially successful — and happy in your work — doesn’t require the integration of your various interests?For example, your introductory statement. Maybe you’re struggling to fit your entire catalog of passions into a short statement for your social media profile, or the bio at the bottom of your articles, or when someone introduces you on a podcast.What if you let go of any sort of perfection in that statement?There is a big difference between an intro statement, versus the descriptions of your various offerings.Your intro statement can be broad, inspiring, and short. It makes you feel good, and it gives a quick taste to the reader of what kind of person you are. But if you try to make it communicate exactly what you do (and the variety of things you do!) then you are giving yourself unnecessary pressure.How can you fit the brilliance of your infinite potential into a few words? Plus, the fact that you keep evolving!Let your intro-statement be a long-term project. Re-visit it every now and then, making a change here and there. Over the years, let it morph until you are really happy with it. And even so, it will still keep evolving!Please don’t give yourself the pressure of coming up with such a statement before you get started with creating your services or marketing your products. You don’t need a perfect statement for your website (you might not even need a website!) nor for your social media.Instead, you can have many different offerings, such as coaching packages for various kinds of client issues, an eventual catalog of online courses, workshops, etc.“If I’m feeling discombobulated in my content, then won’t those who read it feel that way too?”Most of the time, people will read your content on social media — and on social media, readers are used to a huge diversity of content. What about people who read your content via email newsletter? In their email inbox they are also accustomed to a large variety of topics. These days, people are used to — and prefer — variety. As long as your content is true to you, it will form in people’s minds a more whole picture of you, over time. As long as you share what thoughts are true to you, people sense your authenticity, and your ideal audience will like you more.In the lifetime of your business, you will have many offerings — sometimes simultaneously.For example I offer a different online course almost every month, and have a catalog of courses people can buy anytime.Another coach might offer coaching for different challenges, each one being a different package a client could buy.Again, there’s no need to try to make your entire business or brand described in one short thing — people aren’t buying your whole business. They buy one thing at a time. If you have a website, simply send different audiences to different pages on your site!Potential clients or buyers are looking at the description of the specific offering in front of them, the specific thing you’re selling. They aren’t making a decision based on your overall description of yourself.Each offering can have its own clarity: Who is that specific... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

A few years ago, I stopped marketing to the reptilian brain.My conscience could no longer tolerate it…By “lizard brain” I mean the parts within people that are governed by fear, greed, and impatience.See the image below that breaks down a real example…**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=562306474673136 **Yes, my sales cycle is a bit longer now. When people find my website randomly, they’re no longer immediately triggered or incentivized to opt-in or to buy from me. It takes them more time to get to know my values, my expertise, and my way of doing things.Yet, the clients I now get are a much better fit.And, I’m able to connect with them about my higher values, which makes our work together more fulfilling.My marketing is no longer going against the values I believe in. I’ve made the commitment to prioritize virtues above quick sales results, and to help others become conscious of the values they’re supporting so that they can be more empowered in their business.(You might get more short-term sales by manipulating people’s lower selves, but over time this erodes your relationship with your audience, eats away at your conscience, and spawns bad karma.)​Those who market to the lizard brain are breeding more lizard-brain-dominance in their audience.By inciting the people’s lizard brain, marketers (and politicians) do in fact gain more control over their audience in the short-term. It’s power-over others, rather than empowerment of others.I seek instead to help my audience grow their knowledge and ability to make good choices, not to diminish their free will for my own profit.By marketing to the lizard brain, they’re also breeding more fear, greed, and impatience in society. So what if we short-term profit if it actually creates a society we don’t want?​When I stopped doing this type of marketing, I also made the choice to stop supporting the companies that use such tactics. Therefore I don’t use some software that’s popular in my industry. (I won’t name them, but you’ll recognize them when you see their lizard-brain marketing.) Thankfully, these days there are many alternative choices. We can work with providers that do more heart-based marketing. This supports our internal alignment with our values too.There are authentic ways to make more than enough sales.I am happy to say that by prioritizing service over selling, I now have a full coaching practice, without using lizard-brain tactics. (To understand this better, refer to my articles about authentic marketing.)I am always exploring better ways to run my business that align with deeper values. I love teaching methods what I discover to be both effective and good for the heart.May we all commit to more compassionate and wiser ways of marketing, knowing that even before people buy from us, our marketing itself makes an impact!**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=562306474673136 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

An audience member wrote the following to me, and maybe some of you can relate…“I long for the ability to create without any thoughts of money…to create because I love it… to take real time off when I need it… to try new things and build in more hobby time into my life.Everything I create is because I love it, but I tend to always have that background question: ‘Will it make me money?’I want to get to a place where I feel I can try things and fail and be totally fine with it…”**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=735802437184284 **There are 2 things we can create: a hobby, or a business.Hobbies can be a fully creative and personal endeavor, with no pressure for anyone to buy or even like our work.Business has the need to sustain itself, ideally to thrive, which requires enough people to buy into our work, so there’s pressure for meeting others’ wants and purchasing requirements.And yet, there will come a time in your journey of building an audience when you’ll finally have enough true fans, aka people who will buy just about anything you create and sell.Through my content and courses, this is what I yearn to help you do — create your own true fan audience — because that’s when you will have true creative freedom in your business.It takes time and sincere effort to build that kind of audience. The actions you’ll need to take consistently include: content creation and distribution, audience research, collaborations… all the things I’ve been writing and speaking about. (See the 7 disciplines of authentic business.) I’d love to see you create your freedom by having a large enough audience who genuinely loves your authentic creativity!It’s a journey, so let’s not expect overnight success. Maybe you have 2 or 3 clients who already buy much of what you create and sell. Maybe next year you’ll have 10 or 12 such true fan clients. (With diligent content creation/distribution, audience research, collaborations, offer rhythm, etc., you can speed up the process and perhaps get to 20–30 next year, maybe even faster.)Also, what is “enough” true fans to sustain your business? That will depend on what kind of income you require, as well as how you structure your business model. (For more on that, read this blog post: simple business model for solopreneurs.)While we are still on the journey toward financial sustainability, how can we relate to money-making in a way that’s not desperate?For us to really be creative and to serve, Money needs to be an afterthought.Having enough income has to be expected and stable, providing security that you can build on, to be able to then focus on truly serving and delighting your customers.It’s like the sailboat metaphor by Scott Barry Kaufman — if you haven’t secured the leaking holes in your sailboat (which is endangering your life) then it’s all you can (and should!) think about. You need to plug up the holes to secure your boat (i.e. get a secure... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

If you look at the posts on my Facebook Business Page (my social media platform of choice) you’ll notice that I basically post two things:1. Text-only writings, without images or links.2. Videos.In this post I’ll focus why I don’t add images to my writings on my FB business pages.**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=599283897542409 **Note -- this doesn’t apply to artists, photographers, sellers of physical products, or those whose business is very image-oriented. This does apply to anyone whose business is primarily about knowledge, wisdom, or transformation, such as coaching, mentoring, teaching, or healing.Yes, I know the common advice that adding an image will expose my posts to a lot more people. Here’s why I don’t recommend it:1. More exposure creates inauthentic engagement.2. Getting engagement by non-ideal audience members worsens our costs for marketing to those who are ideal audience members.3. Training your audience to like your images (easy to do) decreases their patience in engaging with your more thoughtful material.4. You need to keep upping the game of attractiveness to keep their attention.Let’s explore each problem.More exposure creates inauthentic engagementFor authentic marketing, we’re not just trying to play to the algorithm. We’re trying to inspire or help or connect genuinely with the people who are most meant for us. The algorithm, in fact, is trying to help us authentic content creators.So when you’re doing anything to intentionally “get more views” such as using an attractive image, you are trying to game the algorithm, and human beings will sense the inauthenticity. It’s a bait-and-switch. Sure, people will notice the attention-getting image, but if the message isn’t a right fit for them, they will feel a bit disappointed by your brand. You might actually get a lot of “engagement” in terms of photo clicks, likes, or even shares, but this increases your non-ideal audience. This brings us to the next problem. Increasing Marketing Costs to Ideal AudienceWhen you any attention-getting tactic, and get lots of attention, you’re growing a larger but less-ideal audience. Whether you use paid ads, or try to reach them organically (without paid ads), you’ll have to try even harder to reach the ideal portion of your audience. Why?If you have a larger audience that came from shallow engagement, it means the ideal portion of your audience is smaller and smaller in percentage. Therefore, a growing part of your ad dollars has to wade through a large percentage of non-ideal audience members, in order to find the ideal ones.Without paid ads (trying to reach them organically) you’ll need ideal audience members to engage with your content, to reach more ideal people like them. If instead a bunch of non-ideal audience members engage, Facebook shows it to even more people like that.Creating Shallow EngagementThe more images you post, the more you get shallow engagement with your content.What I’ve done instead is to post lots of thoughtful text-only content on my Facebook Pages -- George Kao Authentic Business Coach and Soul Gym --... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

A common mistake that I see from aspiring content creators. Maybe you have done this too:​You have an idea that inspires you… so you think that it must also excite other people, too. Understandable!Therefore you put lots of time (and maybe money) into packaging that idea into a book… or course… or you create an amazing video after a lot of hard work.You share it with the world.What usually happens?Far less response than you hoped for…You just fell for a core human bias — to be inside your own head. You’ve neglected to adequately test the idea to see if it really inspires other people — besides yourself — before you spent all that effort.**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=706941613233437 **Maybe you think it’s a visibility issue, so you try harder to promote it.Still, the result is baffling: why is something that’s obviously so good (in your mind) not a game-changer for others?Why aren’t people getting it?!You might become resentful or cynical…If you keep experiencing this, you might even decide to quit altogether, believing that it’s just “not your thing”.I hope you will always remember this:No matter what, your passion is a good idea… but how you share it will determine the response.You need to experiment with different ways of sharing the idea, in the mindset of testing, until you discover a way that other people easily “get.”In other words, I recommend the Three Stages of Content.Stage 1: Casual ContentThis is where it all starts.For example, I casually make three short videos while on my long Saturday walks with my dog. In each video, I share an idea that I think might be helpful to some clients and audience members.This very post you’re reading was inspired by one of those casual videos! See here: www.FB.com/GeorgeKao/posts/10106365973759363Update: By 2018, I’ve created so much content that, since then, most of my content creation is Stage 2 (I’ll describe that later.) I still make a Stage 1 video each Friday, from my office, as it’s become much easier to do that than making my dog walk videos.I have no expectations about how these casual videos turn out. At this stage, I spend as little effort as possible. Therefore, I am not concerned whether the content gets any likes or comments.An important distinction to make here: I care about my audience. And I care about my own explorations too, to keep making Stage 1 Content. Yet I don’t care how people respond, because Stage 1 is meant to be exploratory and experimental.The Principles of Stage 1 Content…(1) Either explore a new idea. Or try a different way of saying an old idea.(2) Test the idea with the market by sharing it on social media. Have zero expectations.(3) Minimize your energy and time when making Stage 1 Content, since you don’t know if your audience will like it, no matter how important you believe the message to be. “Casual” is the word that helps me in this situation: relaxed and unconcerned; temporary or impermanent.(4)... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

Excited to have this conversation with Mark Walsh of Embodiment Unlimited!Watch the video here:https://fb.watch/31MmmO5xMO/Mark is launching a free bite-sized series of trainings called The Marketing Dojo. Highly recommended: https://ethicalmarketing.coach/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

Have you heard that you should “claim / stand up for your value” ?Let’s look more deeply at this…How much is your value?How much are you worth?$25/hour? $150/hour? $500/hour? $10,000/hour?If other people charge more, are they worth more?Words matter: they shape how we see ourselves and others. Connecting our fees to our “worth” is an unhealthy comparison.**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1964471757017263 **Are you worth less than someone who charges more?Truth: You are worth infinity.You are a precious human being whose odds of being born are 1 in 400 trillion!“Charge what you’re worth” was perhaps started by some high-priced coach who needed to justify how much they’re charging you.I have seen many people raise their prices (because they’re “worth” more!)… and then what happened? They saw their business decline.So let’s stop using the word “worth” in connection to our service fees.Consider this truer, more practical idea:“Charge based on the market rate.”It makes sense to set your price based on what your clients are expecting and seeing in the marketplace.Look at your niche mates and what they’re charging. Then look at your own needs, and your reputation in the marketplace. Price your services accordingly.Then, based on the market’s response, you might need to change your pricing.There is such a thing as perceived value. If you have a more premium branding and copywriting, people are usually willing to pay more.However, before we all rush to rebrand ourselves as premium / luxury, we need to consider whether our branding is authentic to how we wish to show up in the world?For example I prefer to be minimalistic and “among the people”… a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on the stage.” Luxury branding is not for me. However, for others it may feel authentic.Let’s look at another common idea:“Charge what the market will bear.”Economics teaches us to charge the maximum amount that our clients will tolerate…Let’s flip this around and apply The Golden Rule — You are my market, my potential clients. How would you feel if I charged you the greatest amount you could bear?This is what some high-price coaches and programs do. They charge as much as they can get away with.Their justification: “If you pay more, you’ll take it more seriously and get more results.” Really? Or are they using it to justify their own self-enrichment? The truth is that most people who pay for high-priced programs don’t get the results promised. I’ve written about this before: Beware of expensive business trainings. (Although the opposite can also be true: charging too low can make it appear that you’re desperate, unless you explain why your rates are much lower than others in your industry.)I used to do all this. I used to teach it, too. I’ve also worked with many colleagues who operated from this mindset.This is how business is supposed to work, right? Everyone is supposed to be out for themselves. The... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

“From a marketing course I learned how to write my copy by using the hook-story-close model. The teacher showed how important it is to write to ‘the pain of my client’ in the hook part, and that I should even exaggerate the pain, make it like my client is in a dangerous situation (e.g. if you don’t act now, you’ll suffer dire consequences). The idea behind this is ‘The bigger the pain, the quicker the client will buy from you.’” — anonymous newsletter subscriber.**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=412138569915728 **Sadly, this kind of mercenary marketing advice is too common.Most of us heart-based people don’t enjoy this feeling of transactional marketing. We don’t want to create more negativity in the world.And, we don’t want to possibly re-traumatize our potential clients.Why do we need to hook and close people so quickly? What about developing a relationship?If we think that instant-closing is the only way — to sell to the pain points of our clients — we might even want to give up on marketing altogether…So what’s the alternative? Consider this:Instead of pain points… what if we sell to the client’s joy points?…or their relief points?…or their gratitude points?I’ll say more about this later.First of all, it’s actually good to gently mention their struggle — but not as a way to make them buy from you — but more like a caring doctor might very lightly tap on a painful part of your body to make sure she is diagnosing the problem correctly, and thereby able to provide you the right therapy.(You don’t want her giving you therapy for a non-issue!)So, yes it’s good to make sure that you and the client are on the same page. Do you understand the actual problem they want solved? That is the only reason to gently touch on any pain points.Then for the rest of your marketing copy (or conversation) focus on what’s possible for them if they diligently use your service or product as intended.What kind of transformation would bring them joy?What kind of result would bring them gratitude?What kind of relief might they experience?What is possible for them — and likely to happen — by using your service/product?To be clear, we are not guaranteeing results. No one can do that.What we are saying is that if they have the problem we’ve gently confirmed, then we have designed a service or product that is intended to produce a specific result.We cannot promise the result, but we can promise that we’re being honest about our background and credibility, and we’re telling the truth about how the product or service was designed, and what kind of result it is meant to achieve.We can promise our care for them, because we can surely deliver on that.And if they are the right client, and they work well with us, then they are likely to be better off, than before they found us. They are likely to agree that the money was well spent.In short, we can promise value, but not that they will be pain-free.When clients see that we care, and that we are honest, we will stand out among all the others who are promising them the moon and the stars.**Watch the video... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

It’s ridiculous when someone says they’re “#1” in their field.​“Oh really, by whose standards?” I wonder.The more we puff our chest, the more imposter syndrome strikes.The need to prove our worth is part of the fixed mindset (ala Carol Dweck) — when our ego is attached to a fixed identity that we should always be excellent, and one of the best. It sometimes makes us feel like a fraud, because nobody is perfect. We feel pain (or avoidance) whenever we don’t live up to that shining standard.Instead, what if we simply share what is actually working now?**Watch the video here:https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=771193847068242**What if, rather than trying to prove anything, we simply demonstrate the kind of work we’re already doing right now, with ourselves and with our clients?What if we commit to a growth mindset — the belief that we can always become better with practice — and publicly share how we are practicing, as we move along our journey of development? What if we share about why we care about the journey, and invite others to grow with us?When I do this, my marketing becomes more authentic, because it’s based on actual experience rather than “fake it till you make it” kind of puffery.I don’t have to project a superior image:“I’m so great, you’d be lucky to work with me!”… but rather, we can dive into a heart of connection and service:“Here’s why I care. I’m in the work daily. I love working with people like you.”This is how I create content.This mindset shift relates not only to how we sell, but also to our posture around content creation.Are we talking as if we carry the absolute Truth about our field? That posture suggests that we have to defend ourselves against contrasting opinions. Are we projecting a belief that we know what’s best for everyone?An alternative way is to be in the attitude that I am simply sharing what is true for me now:What is true in my experience at this time?What do I currently understand, knowing there is always more to learn?Yet, what if you need to sell an idea or product?Again, the need to prove ourselves as superior in knowledge can get us into trouble: inauthenticity and desperation.If we’re trying hard to sell something, we’re probably trying too hard.If you already have someone’s trust, then you can be confident to speak authentically and be in service to that person. No energy of “selling” is needed. Instead, you’re liberated to focus on genuine expression, as well as your caring for that person.How to build trust? When you create content consistently, you naturally build confidence — other people’s trust in you, and more importantly, your trust in yourself.When you learn to distribute content effectively, your audience experiences your presence as being reliable and therefore, more trustworthy. You’ll be top-of-mind for them on the topics that you write/speak about.Therefore, there’s no need to “sell” or puff up our chest: “I’m authoritative! I’m number one in my field!”Instead, there’s a natural yet humble confidence, and a caring invitation:“This idea / product has been useful to my clients… and given that you’re having XYZ problem, I think it’ll be... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com

As I prepared to launch this podcast, my audience suggested the playful name of “Business Tao with George Kao”.Some were concerned that the podcast name might be cultural/religious appropriation. (Nevermind that I’m Chinese, and can pronounce Tao te Ching more accurately than most Western Taoist scholars, and that Taoism is characteristically unattached from definitions and who gets credit for what…)Still, the question inspired me to dive back into studying Taoist philosophical principles. In this post, I’ll briefly share how a few such principles might apply to Authentic Business.**Watch the video here:https://www.georgekao.com/blog/tao**AuthenticityA core principle of Taoism is to live authentically. To sense into how the flow of Life is calling to us, and to merge with that flow.As applied to business, this is well-aligned with my teachings of Authentic Business: to create and sell that which is deeply meaningful -- life giving -- for us, and to do marketing “authentically” which is to give into the natural yearning to connect to other people in play and service. This is as opposed to inauthentic business -- mainstream business which measures success by profit rather than by authentic meaning. Also, conventional marketing is about forcing (by way of persuasion) others to do what is profitable for our business, rather than by merging with others in the flow of play and service, which is what authentic marketing is all about.DetachmentTo not resist results, aka reality, the natural flow of life.In conventional business, objectives and goals must be met to be considered “successful”.For authentic businesses, we aim to find value in the action itself. Whether we are writing, selling, serving clients, or doing admin work, we aim to bring joyful productivity to it. We work on our compassionate service, our playful exploration, and by doing so, the process of building a business itself becomes worthwhile, regardless of today’s results or tomorrow’s projections.We consider every day a success because we get to learn more about ourselves and about the world, and to practice embodying our values in our actions.We know that good results will eventually manifest when we act in alignment with authentic business. There’s no egoic attachment to a specific profit timeline. Sure, we can make projections, but those are done in a playful way, with curiosity about how they will match with actual metrics. Business metrics are measurements of reality. Observing them teaches us about the flow of the market. Goals are aspirations toward how we can develop ourselves -- what kind of people we can become -- because results come naturally from a developed business.(Another application of detachment: I don’t copyright any of my writings.)EffortlessnessOne of the popular principles of Taoism is “wu wei” which has been defined in various ways -- natural action, non-action, inexertion, inaction, or effortless action.To me, this is the combination of authenticity and detachment. When I write this article, for example, I am not attached to whether or not my audience likes it. I am writing because I have an authentic interest to do it. I am not contorting myself into performing for others. I am working, yes, and I’m taking action,... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com