If you want to start hearing a lot of unsolicited opinions, here’s a tip: announce that you’re starting a business.
Suddenly, everyone has advice.
Some of it comes from people who’ve never built anything.
Some of it comes from people who have built something—but in a completely different season, with different goals, different resources, and a very different tolerance for risk.
And that’s what makes business advice tricky.
It usually sounds confident.
It’s often well-intentioned.
And you don’t realize how unhelpful it is until you try to live inside it.
Over the years, I’ve invested in countless courses, worked with amazing coaches, and experimented with more strategies than I can count. Some advice helped me grow faster than I ever imagined. And some of it? Took me dangerously close to building a business that looked good on paper… but felt completely wrong for me.
So today, I want to save you some time, energy, and unnecessary frustration.
I’m sharing three pieces of business advice I would absolutely avoid – not because they’re always wrong, but because they’re often taken as universal truths when they shouldn’t be. And more importantly, I’ll tell you what I’ve learned to focus on instead – so you can build a business that’s not just profitable, but sustainable, flexible, and actually aligned with the life you want.
Let’s get into it.
My name is Caitlin Bacher, CEO of Scale With Success®, and I’m on a mission to help course creators all over the world grow their business in a way that is profitable and scalable. I’m sharing revealing insights about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join me here to discover the tough decisions I’ve had to make, the biggest failures I’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. I’m so grateful that I have the chance to tell you everything right here on Scale With Success®: The Podcast. Let’s get started.
Before we get into the first one, I want you to keep this in mind as you’re listening: advice is not instruction. Just because someone says something confidently – or because it worked for them – doesn’t mean it’s meant to be followed blindly.
Most “bad” business advice doesn’t sound bad at all. In fact, it usually sounds logical, motivating, and even a little comforting at first. The problem is that when you treat it as the only way to do things, it can quietly pull you off course and have you chasing goals, systems, or strategies that don’t actually support the business – or life – you’re trying to build.
And the first piece of advice I want to talk about is probably the most common one I hear… and the most damaging when taken at face value.
So let’s start with number one.
1. There is only one right way to do something.
Now, this is completely false and believing this will cause you to go down paths that you have no business being on.
There is always more than one way to achieve a specific outcome.
You need to find out what is actually sustainable for you, not what somebody else thinks should be sustainable for you.
And I get it when we’re first growing our business, a lot of times we look around and see what other people are doing and we start to think:
“You know what? If they’re doing things this way, then I should also be doing things this way.”
But you don’t know the full picture. You just see the tiny tip of the iceberg and not the full system powering everything underneath.
When I started growing my course business I was told that the ONLY way to grow was to put all my eggs in one basket with a big, fancy launch I should do once or twice a year. I was told anything else was a waste of time.
In fact, I didn’t even know what the term “evergreen” meant because all I kept hearing was that I needed to launch – bigger, harder, and better than anyone else.
I know some people love launching and that’s fine for them, but it never made much sense to me. Once I decided I wanted to stop launching and switch to an evergreen model to sell my course I got a lot of pushback from well meaning launchers who told me this would never work.
…but, it did. In fact six months after I quit launching I made my first million, which was something I was NEVER able to achieve in all my years of launching.
If you’ve been told there’s only one right way to do something – don’t listen.
2. Discipline is the key to success.
Now, I know I’m going to get a lot of pushback from this because I know that discipline is one of those things that people love to talk about and business owners and coaches, they love to talk about how the reason why you’re not getting results is because you don’t have enough discipline.
And I do think discipline has value, but I think there is something even more important than discipline – which I’ll get to in a minute.
When I think of the word discipline, I think of forcing myself to do something that I don’t want to do because I feel like I should.
And to me, that feels rigid and unforgiving.
Now I remember when I first started my business, I was obsessed with discipline.
And that’s because hearing that the #1 key to my success as a business owner was discipline fell right in line with all the stuff that I was taught growing up.
And so it just made sense.
That was the paradigm that I was operating under.
If you didn’t get something, it’s because you didn’t want it hard enough or you didn’t try hard enough or you just weren’t good enough.
And for me, it was just a really unpleasant way to grow my business.
So I started to ask myself, is this the way that I really want to grow my business?
And if you’ve listened to my free masterclass, then you know my story and the turning point where I was just like: You know what? If this is what it takes to grow a million dollar business, I’m out. I am 100% out.
It wasn’t until I really started investigating and asking questions and looking for different ways of growing and scaling a business, that I found a way that felt right for me.
You might be thinking to yourself right now, but if you’re not forcing yourself to do what you don’t want to do, then how do you get things done?
And my answer to that is clarity.
I value clarity over discipline.
Now, without clarity, you run the risk of growing a business you don’t even want to grow..
When I have clarity, that clarity gives me strength and flexibility to move forward no matter what.
I don’t mean clarity on every little detail because a big part of running a business is moving forward even when you’re feeling unsure of what’s about to happen next. But, clarity on the big stuff, like your values, your purpose, and the outcome you’re really looking to create.
I’m clear on the outcome that I’m looking to create and I’m flexible with the path forward in order to get me to that outcome.
I understand that life changes and sometimes you get thrown a curveball, something you weren’t expecting. If I have complete clarity on the desired outcome, then that gives me internal motivation to keep moving forward – no matter what. Even if I make mistakes, even if I’m not moving as fast as I’d like to be moving.
I actually get a lot more done by prioritizing clarity over discipline.
It makes the hard stuff feel more doable. Clarity gives me strength because it shines light on my true purpose so that I don’t feel trapped into doing something I don’t want to do.
Now at times, my clarity is so strong that not doing the thing that will lead to my desired outcome doesn’t even cross my mind. It’s not even up for discussion.
That clarity acts like a magnet pulling me in. So that temporary discomfort is irrelevant.
Clarity also gives me flexibility.
Now, there are some days when I’m just not in flow and I do feel confused and I do feel afraid or resistant.
And instead of forcing myself to proceed, which is what I used to do, now I have the freedom to ask myself questions.
Questions like: What is the story I’m telling myself that makes this feel hard right now? Is that really true? If that’s not true, then what is true?
So I will take clarity over discipline any day of the week.
3. Bigger is always better.
Now, bigger can be better if it’s what you really want in your business. Maybe you want to have a BIG million dollar year and you’re ready to put in the work to make that happen.
But, not everyone wants to make that a priority – and that’s ok.
One of our clients is looking to generate $15K per month consistently from her course without paid traffic. That’s it and it’s totally doable.
Now, to some people, her goal could be considered playing small or even a limiting belief of some sort.
But here’s what those people don’t know about her.
She is in a season of really being there for her family. I mean REALLY being there. I won’t get into specifics, but she wants to prioritize being present with her family above all else – FOR NOW.
Next year, she’s ready to go big, but now – she’s more interested in creating time freedom.
Her goal this year is to run a simple and highly profitable business.
So making millions of dollars doesn’t motivate her right now. Could it motivate her next year? Maybe. But for right now, that’s not what she’s looking for.
What she’s looking for right now is more profit and more time to care of herself and her family. That’s what motivates her. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Now, on the other hand, one of my clients rapidly increased her revenue from six figures per year to six figures a month consistently – but, she feels like $100k months are just the beginning for her and her goals are much bigger than that.
So, I want you to give yourself permission to design a revenue goal that feels right for you.
You want to go big, go for it.
But you get to decide and whatever you decide you want your goals to be now, it doesn’t mean that you can’t change your mind later on.
Everyone’s in a different season of life and it’s important to honor that and to choose a goal that makes you feel good.
And your goals may not be just based on overall revenue.
You might have a profit goal, you might have a time spent working goal, you might have some self-care goals.
Whatever those are, it’s important to get really clear on what you want.
So let’s recap, because this is important.
The three pieces of business advice we talked about today may sound harmless on the surface, but taken literally, they can quietly steer you away from the business you actually want to build.
First, the idea that there is only one right way to do something. There isn’t. Sustainable success comes from choosing strategies that work for you, not blindly copying what you see others doing without understanding the full picture behind it.
Second, the belief that discipline is the ultimate key to success. Discipline has its place, but clarity is far more powerful. When you’re clear on the outcome you’re trying to create and the values you want to honor along the way, forward movement becomes more natural – and a lot less painful.
And third, the idea that bigger is always better. Growth only works when it aligns with the season of life you’re in. You get to decide what “success” looks like right now – and you’re allowed to change your mind later.
If there’s one thing I hope you take away from this episode, it’s this: you don’t need to force yourself into someone else’s version of success to build a profitable, meaningful business. You get to question the advice you’re given, choose what actually fits, and design a business that supports your goals – not the other way around.I appreciate you being here, and be sure to tune in next time for another episode of Scale With Success® – The Podcast.
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