Sustainable Business. Sustainable Life.

Grow a business that takes care of you.

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In January 2020, I discovered Clickfunnels.

I’d been involved with online entrepreneurship before (created and ran a blog in 2016-2017, studied blogging, course creating, and online marketing/sales ever since) but this was my first experience with a truly glamorous approach to online business.

I was a young single woman still living with my parents and trying to figure out how to make enough money to move out. 

I had big dreams (and big fears). 

I was swept away with the promises of fast money and only being One Funnel Away, and I dove in head first with the One Funnel Away Challenge.

When that didn’t make any money (shocker…), I felt like a failure. I was losing money paying for the software every month which made me even more desperate to make it work.

I felt like I had a box of puzzle pieces but I’d lost the big picture of what the puzzle was supposed to be. I was taking my box around to everyone I looked up to, asking them what they thought my puzzle was about. 

But instead of taking the time to actually help me, they all said “Here, I think my piece would go good in your puzzle” and kept dumping more things into the mix.

Everyone was running some kind of course or coaching program, so I tried to “be the type of client I wanted” and “acted on faith” by scraping together enough for the down payments, hoping against hope that what they promised to teach me would work that time and make the money I’d need to finish paying them.

But none of them did.

I dropped out of all of them - some of them dropped me. I felt even more like a failure, and a liar on top of it. 

I got up early and stayed up late. 

I drank the kool aid, burned the midnight oil, hustled, sacrificed time with my family, didn’t listen to the naysayers and “normies,” maxed out my credit cards, and jumped without a safety net straight into the deep end.

And I drowned.

The problem was not me. 

The problem wasn’t even all the gurus and experts and marketers (although I wanted to blame them for a long time.)

The problem was that the entire system of business they were teaching wasn’t built on the universe’s operating principles.

Clickfunnels and all the other experts in their ecosystem preach a “get rich quick” sort of business. They’re not outright scamming - their programs did work for them and (ostensibly) their star students - but they’re also not telling the whole truth.

Their marketing style centers around flamboyant but vague income claims, the promise that it’s easy, and that “so-and-so” made $XXX in a ridiculously short time frame.

Logically, there’s nothing wrong with that. They have to be vague about income claims or the FTC will fine them. If they promise that it’s hard, people won’t be excited.

But while they don’t actually GUARANTEE that you’ll “make $XXX in a ridiculously short time frame,” all of their sales copy is designed to give you that impression… because that sells. However, it’s been my experience that it sells wildly false expectations that lead to wildly confusing and disheartening results.

The proof is in the pudding.

When I used their recipe, my pudding was a dismal failure. The majority of people that were trying to “make it” using that same recipe were also experiencing dismal failure. 

While it may have worked for the gurus for a time, a lot of them have faded or disappeared altogether; and the ones that still are around aren’t making their money with the system they’re teaching people.

This is not against any one company or marketer: I’m pointing out that the entire system that all those people are using is fatally flawed at the core.

Avocado Entrepreneur is my experiment striving to provide an answer to that flawed theory.

My goal is to answer the questions and solve the problems I experienced while doing it “their way.”

Problems of Current Marketing Culture // 

  • Very narrow definition of business; thinking a funnel equals having a business
  • “Hustle culture” - extremely imbalanced expectations for how much work the founder has to put in
  • Encouraging unhealthy, harmful, and contradictory behaviors (like not sleeping, not resting on weekends, out-of-control morning routines, and “investing” by going into debt)
  • Encouraging “acting on faith” while simultaneously avoiding any responsibility for being trustworthy
  • Promoting gross revenue as the only marker of success (while withholding the fact that they’re talking about gross revenue)

Questions //

  • How can I build a business that is profitable from the start?
  • How can I build a business that is sustainable, strong, and long-lasting?
  • How can I build wealth for myself and my family for generations to come?
  • How can I work with my strengths and limitations to create a business that nurtures me as much as I will nurture it?

Core Assumptions

01.

God created the world and set in place principles and laws that bring order to all life. This includes the physical, spiritual, energetic, mental, and emotional realms.

02.

God created mankind in his image, which means every individual human being has sovereign free will, authority over their dominion, and the responsibility to steward the resources entrusted to them.

03.

Human beings are free to create and order their worlds as microcosms within the universe’s ecosystem. The universe is the open-source software, the platform upon which we build our lives. But it belongs to God and there is proprietary code that we can’t tamper with. (The terms + conditions of being alive.) Trying to overwrite the code or live in defiance of it is the cause of all human sickness and suffering.

04.

Business, as the ultimate expression of human interdependence and mutual benefit (when done correctly), is therefore one of the purest examples of the results of the Code of Beneficence.

05.

Because all realms of life run on the same Code, we can identify and understand the principles in one area and then apply them to another. It’s like all the major platforms running on the same operating system… what works on one will work on them all. Studying multiple areas yields better results because we gain a more complete and nuanced mastery of the principles.

Hypothesis

If I extrapolate the principles I’ve learned from other disciplines of life - things I’ve been successful in - I can build the kind of business(es) that answer all my questions.

Prediction //

Based on the hypothesis and core assumptions above, I predict that cross-applying principles mastered from other areas of life to my current business will:

  • Yield more sustainable long-term results than the current online marketing “business strategies” alone (as compared to data gathered from my past experiences and my peers who are doing it the normal way)
  • Increase understanding and mastery of the principles as applied to their original disciplines
  • Generate the confidence and means to create a life I truly design for myself, with the security that comes from acting on proven principles

Field Experiment Scope

I plan to apply, test, and prove principles and frameworks from the following disciplines:

Sustainable Agriculture

permaculture, animal husbandry, aquaponics, agroforestry

Holistic Health

diets, exercise, naturopathy, bioindividuality, microbiology

Human Design

personality types, love languages, 

habit tendencies, lifestyle design

Interpersonal Relationships

dating, marriage, negotiation, conflict resolution, boundary setting

Energy Healing

chakras, EFT, visualization, grounding, breathwork, meditation

Design 

graphic, textile, interior, landscape, web, typography, engineering

Experiment Details

Each test will be conducted on myself and the businesses I am building from scratch in conjunction with this experiment.

These tests will be structured as projects (“Campaigns”) with specified criteria for execution (“Missions”) and clearly defined results to be achieved (“Achievements”).

In reporting the conclusions of these tests, I will clearly explain the principle I am testing, briefly how it is applied in the source discipline, how I chose to apply it in my business, the results of that experiment, and any iterations I plan to make in the future.

Disclaimer //

I have only my past experiences trying to build several different businesses the “normal” way (i.e. the way online marketers and business gurus teach) as a direct comparison to this experiment.

While I have structured Avocado Entrepreneur as a field experiment, I know all too well that there are far too many variables for me to control.

Frankly, it would be a giant pain in the ass to try to create TWO new businesses (one the online marketers’ way and one my way) simultaneously in order to plausibly prove cause and effect. 

So I’m not gonna. 

If you decide to follow this journey and experiment, please remember that all information I share is subjective to my own presuppositions and biases and I am not claiming in any way to be the “Expert.” 

In fact, far from claiming to have found The Way, most conclusions I share will immediately change based on results from following iterations. I prefer for you to think of me as a Loveable Nerdy Scientist and Professional Guinea Pig (kinda like Tim Ferriss… but less crazy).

You are welcome to implement any and all of my findings, as long as you completely understand and agree to the following:

  • You are responsible for yourself. Any actions you decide to take, no matter where you got the idea from, are your responsibility and you will bear the full consequences of that action (sounds threatening, but consequences can also be good things).
  • You get to think for yourself. I’ll present information the way I understand it, because I’m me. You are welcome (and I encourage you!) to disagree, challenge my conclusions, and run your own experiments. Reframe the principles in disciplines you’re familiar with. Make it your own! And let me know how it’s working, I love our chats, dahling.
  • Only you and God know what is the right thing for you to do. I’m not gonna tell you what you should do, especially if we’ve never had an actual one-on-one conversation. If I don’t actually know you, I don’t get a say in your life. If we end up connecting, I coach/consult with you, and we become friends THEN I’ll have earned the relationship equity to speak into your life directly. Until then, it’s up to you, pal. (Anyway, it’s technically always up to you… See points 1 & 2 above ;)

If you're still here, I'm impressed!

I’m guessing you also had a negative experience with the mainstream online business / marketing world and are looking for something better.

Add your leaf to the tree by joining my group of biz buddies and closest friends - y’all get first dibs on everything to come! This is a group effort, and I expect your participation in the experiment.

Try things out, share your results, encourage each other! It’s gonna be so much fun!

See you soon, friend!

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