156 - The Internet Is Lying to Women About Entrepreneurship

156 - The Internet Is Lying to Women About Entrepreneurship- Youtube
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to the "MaYapinion" podcast, where I give my opinions on entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Maya Roffler, and I'm excited to be back. I take a little break every summer for, from both of my shows, and I just think rest is so important, and I like to come back really refreshed and excited to talk about some topics that I'm just inspired about lately.

I've been talking about them on my TikTok page, also in our private community. If you guys are interested and wanna be a part of our private community, it's free. You can join it. It's on Skool. Been hanging out there. It's growing fast, so you can click the link below, check it out at MaYapinion.com as well, and I'd love to hang with you.

We're coming back with our networking, and we're doing my free coaching calls as well, where you can come and bring your business challenge to me and connect with other women. So come on over. [00:01:00] We're growing it. I'm listening to feedback. I'm growing the community in ways that you guys want, and that's really exciting.

Really exciting. But today, I'm back with another opinion on entrepreneurship, and this is one I've been talking a lot about on TikTok, my socials. So I wanna get into it. Today, I'm gonna talk about the internet, social media, the internet, and in my opinion, I feel like the internet is lying to women about entrepreneurship What does that mean?

What does that mean and why do I wanna talk about this? So look, I've built businesses, I've made money, I've lost money, I've had wins, I've had failures, I've had incredible clients. I've had some clients that weren't really the best fit, maybe on both sides. And I wanna talk about all of this, and I talk about this very openly on my socials and here on the show.

But in my opinion, what I see online is [00:02:00] not what entrepreneurship looks like at all. It's just my opinion on it, but I think a lot of people make it look like this glamorous, I'm sitting by the beach in Bali and I'm on my laptop. And I'm like, that's wonderful, but that's not realistic for most people on their entrepreneurial journey.

It's not. It's not realistic. Most of us are not sitting on a beach in Bali with a laptop open, working from anywhere. A lot of us have kids. A lot of us have spouses. A lot of us have local responsibilities. It doesn't mean that the goal for entrepreneurship isn't to have freedom, but I think it's kind of misleading, in my opinion, when people are showing these beautiful images and they're promoting things like, "Buy my course and you'll learn how to make $100,000 in a week."

Well, they're making $100,000 a week because they're just selling you a course on how to make $100,000 a week, but it's really just telling you to do the same thing that they're doing. So, [00:03:00] I feel like women, especially women, right, because this is such a big culture here, but honestly anyone in general that watches the coaching industry and sees this, gets really, really frustrated.

And it feels misleading, and I feel like we're breaking out of this 2016, 2017 era when there was a lot of mystery and mystique and smoke and mirrors and ambiguity behind what this is, how these people are making tons of money off courses. And I'm not here to bash coaches. I think coaches are great. I am technically someone who mentors and coaches women.

I just don't love the term coach, but I like mentor and I like problem solver better for me because I like to go in and help you with your biggest business challenge and help you get unstuck. But here are just some opinions that I have about this, okay? So one, the internet sells a fake version of success.

And when I say the internet, its content creators, it's people that are wanting to sell courses [00:04:00] that are not really pointed towards something specific And I think, there's a lot of things that go along with this too. Like success is not linear. So with some of these folks talking about, "Oh my God, I had $100,000 week launch," or, "I did, you know, $3,000 in three hours when I launched this," like that's great, and some of it is true.

Some people are having that kind of success. But, you know, with business, success is not linear. They're not sharing with you that they tried four other courses first and then landed on this one. They had many failed launches, and I'm just talking for coaching. With other businesses, some people will tell you, "Well, I created this product and it failed, and I created another product and it failed, and then finally I did this product and it won."

They're not telling you that. They're telling you, "I created this product and I'm off to the races and I sold a million dollars in a year." That's amazing, but I think we need to be a little more realistic about what [00:05:00] success truly looks like and what it-- like failure is okay too, in my opinion. It's necessary.

So there's also this big obsession with hitting six figures, you know, in a month or, you know, this seven-figure obsession. Well, we all want to get to those big numbers because that equals whatever your number is will equal financial freedom for you. But the reality is there's successes along the way.

Like when you sign your first client, you sell your first product. You're not making a million dollars the first time you sign a client typically, typically. But that's a huge win and that's a huge milestone, and so that's success. Don't let social media, anything on the internet, what people say, what people try to sell you, don't let that deter you from your wins and recognizing your wins as wins.

Because the other thing I want you to think about [00:06:00] too with all this success when people are telling you, "Oh, I made, you know, $500,000 last year selling this course," that's revenue. That's not profit. Revenue doesn't equal profit. How much did they spend in ads to get that revenue? How much are they spending on a team?

You're bringing in a couple million dollars a year, that's great, but are you doing it by yourself or do you have a team? So just remember that revenue doesn't always equal profit, and I think we get really jaded with that, and we get kind of rose-colored glasses with it. Something to think about. Another thing in this, mirage of things that we see online, booked and busy doesn't mean successful.

Sometimes I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off because I have so many meetings and so many things to get to, and I've really had to preserve that time because just because I was booked and busy all the time didn't mean that [00:07:00] I was successful. It didn't mean that I was making the most revenue or profit that I had ever made.

It did not mean that. It did not mean that at all. What it did mean is that I was getting burnt out. So I learned how to preserve my time and really push back on what meetings are essential, really carving out those times for me, but, don't let people fool you. Just because they're out and about and they're going to a lot of meetings and things like that,

It's a mirage. Here's really the reality of it. We know that things fail. You pivot. You figure it out. That's what I want to see and what I strive to do when I'm sharing here on my podcast, on social, when I'm talking to women and helping them with their business challenge, challenges. Like, let's be real. I went through these things too.

You're going through these things. It's real, and I just think it's really refreshing when [00:08:00] people are honest about that, and that's why I give my honest opinions here, because I think we need to be more honest. The second thing I would share with you is look at it this way. In my opinion, everyone is selling the answer, like the big answer.

So when you're watching stuff like this on the internet and people telling you they can help you with this, or they can help you with sales, or they can help you with marketing, or they can help you have a $100,000 launch or whatever it is, it feels like, "Oh my God, this is going to be the solution if I just buy this course, or if I just buy this thing, or if I just work with this person."

They're going to fix everything in my business for me. And this isn't just like hating on coaches. Again, I wanna be clear about that. I definitely believe in coaches. I think they're great, and I do coach and mentor. But my problem with this is that we're als- a lot of people, not me, but a [00:09:00] lot of people are selling the same framework, formula, exact frameworks.

The problem with that is that where I'm at in my business and where you're at in your business, it could be two totally different things that we're, quote-unquote, "failing at" and need to pivot. Maybe you have a product that you're selling and it's a physical product, and you're growing so fast, you can't make it in your home anymore.

You can't make it at the local center you were going to. Like, you've got to outsource. You've got to go to a facility now or have someone else make it for you. Like, those are great problems, but someone who's selling, like, a generic framework and course, they're not gonna understand how to coach you on finding the right facility, finding the right...

What's your, what's the right cost? How much is it gonna cost you to make it? Where do you need to place the profits at? And I could go on and on and on with these examples. It's just really important that you are [00:10:00] picking the right people to help you with this. And education isn't the problem. It's not, because I feel like we also get in the habit, and I did this in the beginning.

Years ago, I was like, "Oh, I'll, I'll... I need another course on this," or, "I need to understand this." And then I finally was just like, "I'm not even finishing these courses. I'm not even applying what I'm learning because a lot of it doesn't even apply to me." If you're going to do the same type of business that you're buying the information from, so like if someone were to buy a course from someone that's selling coaching programs, that might work for you.

It might work for you If you're doing the same type of coaching and you wanna build your business the same way, this is why these framework courses, they sell, but they don't always work, and you may be sitting there going, "Okay, I learned all this stuff, but it really doesn't apply because my business is actually like this," or, "It has this that's different or that's different."

So what worked for someone else isn't automatically gonna be right for you, and I feel like we get [00:11:00] really overwhelmed, and then we get really depressed because we're like, "Oh, I thought if I went to this particular coach, or if I bought this particular program, or if I read this particular book, it was gonna solve all my problems."

But the reality is your framework for your business might be something entirely different than just this generic framework that they're selling you or that they're talking about. It doesn't mean that they're wrong, and it doesn't mean that you're wrong. You're right. You know what needs to happen in your business, and you need someone to help you with that.

So if someone's business is teaching you how to build a business, I wanna know what business did they build? Always ask yourself that and do your research. So if you wanna work with someone and you need a mentor, okay, like what kind of businesses have they built? For instance, I have an event company.

I've been doing this for 17 years, and I love the business. But if somebody were to come to me and say, "Maya, that's amazing. I need help with my event business," and then they tell me that they have a wedding [00:12:00] business, I know I'm not the right person for them because I focus on corporate and nonprofit events.

I come from large trade shows, very high-end, big scale events, so I'm not gonna be the right person to do weddings 'cause it was never my thing. I love corporate. I love nonprofit. That's where I live. I love working with those clients, and it's amazing, and I wouldn't change it for the world. And I love... I have mentored and love mentoring women who want to have an event business and want to focus on those areas.

But it's not gonna work for me 'cause the wedding thing is just not my vibe, and so it's also is not something that I've built, and I don't feel comfortable in that space and helping you. Could I answer some questions for you? Sure. But it's not where I live, and it's not my focus. So think of it like that.

Think of it like that, and if someone were to come to me and say, "Hey, I wanna start... You know, I've got a clothing business. I'm really struggling, though, with, you know, manufacturing production. I wanna go overseas with this. Can you help me with that?" I can. I have a background in that. But if someone were to come to me and say to me, "Hey, [00:13:00] I wanna start a business," or, "I started a business," something around those lines, "and I want to build a new, like, AI agent Fabulous.

I'm not gonna be the right fit for that either. I'm not going to be. I have a tech business, but I also have mentors for that. Now, if you have the business built and you wanna know how to grow and scale and you need help with sales and marketing, I'm your girl. I can help you there. But I think it's just really important to understand where people shine, what their background is, and, like, how they're going to help in your business.

Just my opinion, but I really don't wanna work with somebody who doesn't have experience in what I'm needing, and I wanna know that they've failed. I wanna know. In my opinion, failure is the most important thing. I wanna know that they failed, and I wanna know how they grew and evolved from that.

I think that's so huge, and that's so attractive to me. So just remember, if someone's business is teaching you how to build a business, that's [00:14:00] okay. It's totally okay. But I wanna know what business they built first. I wanna know their failures. I wanna know their wins. I wanna know how they got to where they are now to mentor you and build a course or whatever it is that they're doing to help you Another thing in my opinion is entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship isn't like an aesthetic Like I was talking about earlier in this episode, laptop by the pool, you know, mai tai in hand.

Sure, there's some of that. You know, entrepreneurship can bring you freedom. Not in the beginning. It's not going to in the beginning. You gotta work hard in the beginning so that you can have that freedom. That's what people don't like to talk about. People wanna sell you on the freedom, the beautiful Bali pictures, traveling around the world, all of those things.

And while all of those things can become true, and they're becoming true for me and have been true for me, they don't show you the other side, which is clients, taxes, contracts, [00:15:00] mistakes, uncertainty, really just figuring shit out. And that's with a messy bun on top of my head, in my office, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink.

So, you know, sometimes early mornings, late nights. It's hard work to achieve that freedom. It's completely worth it, though. It's completely worth it. But I feel what, what happens a lot and what we see a lot online, social, you know, YouTube, all the things that we're seeing and we're ingesting, is people saying like, "Look at all this freedom.

Look at all the amazing things I get to do now." But they're not pulling that curtain back and showing you, "Here I am, 11 o'clock at night," you know, face mask on, hair in a bun, sitting here cranking out expenses or catching up on emails because I was on calls all day long or whatever it is that you're doing.

And that's something that's really important to me. In my opinion, I think that's so important that people are showing you both sides of the coin. Like, yes, [00:16:00] you can have freedom, but here's how I got here. Yes, you can have a successful business, but here's how I got to it. I put in the time. I put in the hard work.

I wasn't afraid to fail. I wasn't afraid to do things that other people might not wanna do, might shy away from, 'cause you're gonna wear a lot of hats in the beginning. You are. And that's the challenge of entrepreneurship. So I can honestly say entrepreneurship gave me freedom, but it did not give me an easy life.

This is not the easiest path. And entrepreneurship can give you that freedom too. And people... it's so interesting to me because a lot of people will see this or they'll comment on a clip about this and they'll say, "You're not being honest about entrepreneurship." I think I'm being super honest giving my opinions because I think we can't just harp on all positive and we can't just harp on all negative.

We have to give the full picture because this is not for everybody. But the internet kinda sells [00:17:00] it to you as anybody can do this, anybody can do this. And something that I often say, in my opinion, yes, I do believe that anybody can be an entrepreneur. And some people will fight me on that too. They'll say, "What?

No one... No, not everyone can be an entrepreneur." Hang on a second I believe anyone can be an entrepreneur. I don't believe entrepreneurship is for everybody. Because anybody has a great idea. Everybody has a million, multi-million dollar idea, at least one in their lifetime, if not more than that. Bare minimum here, guys, one.

But I think everybody has more than one. Just my opinion on it, but I do Everyone can be an entrepreneur, but not everybody is going to be an entrepreneur because entrepreneurship isn't for everybody. It's not. Not everybody's cut out to ride the highs and the lows, especially the lows. I think everybody's cut out to ride most highs.

Most highs, right? They might get overwhelmed, but the lows, not everybody's cut out for that. [00:18:00] And that's why I say that, and that's my opinion on it, because I think everybody can come up with an idea, and everybody can start to navigate through different ways. We have so much accessibility now with AI and googling how to do a business and building things.

We don't even have to build a website anymore. It'll do it for us. So it's really a magical time to bring ideas to life and we're gonna see more and more entrepreneurs grow than ever. We do every single year, every single month now, which is incredible. It's amazing. However, you're not gonna see all of them stick around, 'cause you really have to have grit, and you can't be afraid of failure.

I'm probably gonna talk about that on every episode in some capacity, because as I just mentioned, entrepreneurship, it's not an aesthetic. It's not me sitting by the pool having a Mai Tai. It's a balance, and you're driving towards that freedom, and you really have to love what you do. Like, I love the businesses that I have, and I love what I do.

Doesn't mean I don't get tired, doesn't mean I don't get burnt out. And that side is the side you wanna show and be honest about. [00:19:00] It's so refreshing, and that's what I try to do on my socials and here, really intentionally here with you on the MaYapinion podcast. And look, I still choose it. I would still choose entrepreneurship because there is a freedom to it when you start to get to a place where you have a good grasp on what you're doing.

I have complete ownership, so my failures are my failures and my wins are my wins. And it's a choice. It is definitely a choice. I can tell you there's been times when over the past decade I've been like, "Oh my God, do I just go back and get a nine to five?" I don't have those thoughts often anymore.

That's a lot in, like, the, the deep failure phases where you're like, "Oh my God, can I really do this?" The self-doubt, the things that creep in. But I would still choose this. I would. I think one of the most amazing things, in my opinion on this, is that you're building something that's yours, and you can build it as far and as high as you want, and no one can take that from you.

No one can take that from you. [00:20:00] You know? Your failures are your failures. Your wins are y- your wins. And look, it doesn't have to be easy to be worth it. It doesn't. I think I look back on all of the failures and the things and the times that I've gotten knocked down, and that's what actually has made it most worth it to me.

It honestly has. I look back on the wins and I'm like, "That was huge. That was such a cool win. That was great." Like, when I first got my, like, first six-figure client or th- you know, different things like that, I'm like, "Oh, those are wins." But I don't, I don't really think about those day to day.

I think about failures quite often, and then I smile and I'm proud of myself for overcoming those. You're gonna be more proud of that. That's just my experience and my opinion on that, though. My opinion, this show, everything that I do here, it's what this is all about. It's the reality of building a business and what you actually do when stuff happens, when stuff goes wrong, or when stuff really pops off when you weren't expecting it to.

And, you know, I, I think that's what I [00:21:00] wanna continue to talk about and just be really real with you here. And so if you're not following me on socials, follow me there too, @MayaRofler on both Instagram and TikTok, and also follow our podcast page for all of our clips at MaYapinion podcast. I'll continue talking about all of this with all of you because building a business, it's not easy.

It's not easy, and I wanna share what I'm doing with you, and I want you to share with me. So I want you to tell me whether you're seeing this on, you know, clips or whether you are listening to our new episodes, which I love, and I'm glad I'm back for the fall, and we'll be here for the rest of the year.

Episodes out every other week. Probably be kicking that up too, so stay tuned. But I want you to tell me, what are you struggling with in your business right now? What are you struggling with? If you tell me, you might just get my opinion on it, okay? And I'll call you out here on, the podcast and then also on TikTok [00:22:00] and Instagram, and I'll answer your questions.

And then do not forget also that we have our free school community for women entrepreneurs just like you, where we're connecting, it's free to join, and we're gonna have more and more resources loaded this upcoming fall in 2026 and throughout the end of the year to help you get into 2027 and overcome these business challenges that you're moving through.

Or if you're looking just to launch your business, this is a great way for you to get involved in a great entrepreneurial community. Thank you guys so much for listening to the "MaYapinion" podcast. We'll see you back on our next episode, and I look forward to hearing about your business challenges. . 

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