How Do I Make My Offer Irresistible to Customers?

Originally aired Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Businessing is now a weekly show with a new episode every Monday.

Short answer: An offer gets irresistible when three things line up. It has to deliver real value and move the customer from where they are to where they want to be. It has to solve a problem they have right now. And you have to love doing it. If you keep having to convince people to buy, one of those three is probably missing.

Today I thought out loud about what makes an offer irresistible, the kind people buy before you finish explaining it. The idea came from a Red Hot Chili Peppers documentary I watched on the treadmill. Flea said he knew the band would work during their very first song, because the crowd couldn't help themselves. I turned that into three checks for any offer: value, timing, and fun. I also demoed Gemini inside Gmail and Google Calendar. In the Idea Slam, two questions from opposite ends: what to do when friends get weird once you start making money, and what to do when you know you should close your business but can't. I shared my own story of shutting down a radio show.

Businessing is the weekly show where small business owners figure out what to do next, with a new episode every Monday. Hosted by Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community: owners only, nobody pitching, $19 a month.

Key takeaways

• Before you launch an offer, check that it truly moves a customer from where they are to where they want to be.
• Ask whether your offer solves a problem people have right now, or whether it would feel out of place a year from now.
• Every two weeks, write down the most fun thing you do in the business and move more of your time toward it.
• If you keep having to convince people to buy, check whether your offer lacks value, timing, or the fun you bring to it.
• If you know the business has to close and you're out of options, close it sooner so the debt doesn't keep growing.

Questions this episode answers

How do I know if my product or offer is good enough to sell?

Run it through three checks. It has to deliver real value, it has to solve a problem people feel right now, and you have to love doing it. When all three line up, people want it without being convinced.

Why isn't anyone buying my new offer?

If you're putting it out there over and over and people aren't getting it, something is missing. Maybe it isn't timely, maybe it doesn't solve the problem, maybe they don't believe you, or maybe it's no fun. Check each one before you push harder.

What should I do when my friends get weird about my business making money?

Talk about money with friends and family as little as you can. Jealousy and envy are real, and people on a salary may not understand how an owner can make more by selling more. Save the celebrating for other business owners who get it.

How do I know when it's time to close my small business?

If you're out of money and out of options, close it, and do it sooner rather than later. The final days usually mean chasing new ad campaigns and strategies that dig you deeper into debt. Closing doesn't mean you have to go work for someone else, because a different version of the business may still work.

Worth quoting

You can't tell people to put their hands in the air. You can't tell people to go out and dance when it's right. They just put their hands in the air and they just dance.

Pat Miller on Businessing

You can't compete with someone who is having fun. A hundred percent true. A hundred percent true.

Pat Miller on Businessing

I literally ask myself every two weeks and I note what the answers are. It helps me quit things that are no longer fulfilling to me.

Pat Miller on Businessing

If you had the guts to open a business, you are my hero, literally. You had a vision and you went after it and you didn't settle.

Pat Miller on Businessing

On the show

• Idea Slam question: Two questions: what to do when friends get weird after your business starts making money, and what to do when you know you should close your business but can't.

In this episode

• News: Meta verdict, Delta and Congress, Florida special election
• What makes an offer irresistible
• Three checks: value, timing, fun
• How to tell if you're having fun in your business
• AI demo: Gemini in Gmail and Google Calendar
• Idea Slam: friends get weird about your money
• Idea Slam: knowing when to close your business

Watch, listen and join

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Listen anywhere
• Small Business Owners Community
• The Small Business Library (add it to your AI tool)

More on this topic: What you sell answers from the Small Business Owners Community

Full transcript

And good morning. It's Wednesday, March 25th, and we are. Businessing. This is small business's daily live show. I'm your host, pat Miller, the Fridays off guy and founder of the small business owners community. Today we're sponsored by Gen Head. As always, thanks to Nikki and the team for making the show possible and for helping us produce the show.

They go way out of their way to make this look good. Question Mark. So thank you Gen Ed for being a part of the team on today's show. I've got some fun stuff. We're gonna have fun today. I'm in the mood to have some fun. So hopefully you are as well and you are ready to have some fun with us in the chat. So say good morning, uh, when you tune in as well. We're gonna check on the news. We've got two ideas slam questions today, and they're on the opposite ends of the spectrum. One asks what happens when you start making money and your friends start to notice and they're not being cool about it? Then the other side of it asks, what happens if I

need to close this thing down? So, we're gonna look at both ends of the spectrum this morning about what it's like to do well and what do you need to do, do if it's not going so well. Our lead story of the today, today is, um, this is the thing I'm really excited to talk about. It is, how do you make a product or a service irresistible? Just magnetic. People just, they can't get enough of it. And I was inspired this morning and I wanna share what inspired me, and it was one of my favorite bands. That inspired me. So we'll just talk that out. It's not fully baked. We're gonna have a conversation about it, but how can we make our, uh, products more irresistible?

Our AI story of the day is fantastic. We're gonna talk about Google and ai, and I say Google as a surprise because it looks like Google did something useful. Welcome to the party, Google. We'll talk about Gemini and I'll give you a demo, which again may or may not work. So get ready to eat your popcorn and laugh at me if it doesn't. Alright, so when you log in this morning, tell us all about who you are and what you do in the chat so we can celebrate you on the air as well. Let's get into our news headlines. Meta was ordered to pay $375 million after a New Mexico jury found it enabled child exploitation. It's the first time any state has beaten a major tech company at something like this on child safety.

And the jury found that meta engaged in, and this is a quote, unconscionable trade practices that took advantage of kids. Now, 375 million, lot of money, but not when you think about how much money meta makes. Meta makes $40 billion a year. So this fine is basically four days of their revenue, but it's, it, it's, it's not nothing. What's going on here? I don't wanna see that. My computer's freaking out. What's going on here? Stop sharing now. This is fun. See now this is the demo that I have lined up and now you get to see what happens when it doesn't wanna participate. There we go. That was kind of fun, wasn't it? Maybe Meta heard me talking about it and it got into my machine and it said, Hey, let's screw up that guy's live broadcast.

I think that's what they did. Thanks a lot. And meta, I'm blaming you. So yeah, meta lost in court and of course they are appealing and that is not a surprise because we would anticipate them to appeal. This story is scary, effective. I think this is gonna work. Delta Airlines is suspending VIP airport services for Congress during the government shutdown.

This whole time with TSA lines snaking out to the parking lot in some airports. When Congress needs to fly out, they get the red jacket treatment, they get cut right to the front of the line so they don't have to stand in the security line. They have been flying home to their districts and not feeling the pain of the TSA problems. Delta just changed that. They're saying, you know what, no, we're gonna suspend VIP airport services for members of Congress. Ooh, burn. Burn, and probably really effective. If you are the Senator of Wyoming and you've gotta fly home this weekend, do you really wanna stand in a three hour airport? No. That is gonna motivate you I think.

I think that's perfect. I think this will hopefully get them to get their act together to open DHS and get TSA what they need to keep on working 'cause they've been working without pay. Reminding you since February 14th and over 300 TSA agents have quit. The wait times, as you've seen, they're still ridiculous. Houston and Atlanta are particularly bad. They are stretching two plus hours during peak travel time. Hearing this, what Delta's doing, it reminds me of what Warren Buffett always said about fixing the deficit. 'cause Warren Buffet money guy, he would get asked all the time about, oh, about the national debt, the deficit, what are we gonna do?

How can it be fixed? And in classic Warren Buffet, buffet language, I, I could fix it in one day. Really? How could you fix it in one day? He said, yeah, I'd make a rule that if the balances and budget everybody's fired and they can't run for reelection, it'd be fixed in a day. And that sounds so simple, but you know, it's true. If for some reason there was a law that passed that said, you're all out of a job unless you balance the budget, the budget be balanced. We all know that. So way to go Delta, and let's hope that this delta change, as silly as it is, is just the start of getting this thing done. One other political story, and this is for you, if you don't like Donald Trump, if you don't like Donald Trump, you are going to love this story.

If you're hoping for the flippant where the Democrats take over Congress in November, listen to this. Democrat, Emily Gregory just flipped a deep red Florida seat, but it's not any deep red Florida seat. This is the district that includes Mar-a-Lago, Trump's home. She only won by 2.4 points. However, Republicans carried that district in 2024 by 19 points.

One other thing that's cool about this story. The woman that won is 40 years old and she's a small business owner. I mean, if the world has problems, send us to Congress. We'll get this thing fixed, but we'll just come on. This is, this isn't hard. We can do this. So that makes 29 state legislative seats that have been flipped from GOP Control since January of 25, and those folks that are cheering for the Democrats to win.

The odds, like the outcome, the betting markets are saying, yeah, it looks like the house is gonna go to the Democrats and the senates like they're prognosticating. Maybe a 50 50 chance if either one of them goes, uh, president Trump is gonna be able to get virtually nothing done for the rest of his term. So if you are cheering against Donald Trump last night is big, November of course will be a lot bigger. Let's get into the lead story. Sometimes on the show I'll have this fully formed deep thought framework. Just ready to present. Here is my report. It's just, it's all done. Maybe it's some advice. Maybe it's a way to do something better, but not today.

Today I wanna think out loud, and I want you and me to have a conversation. And I think I know where this is going because I found some inspiration that I'm still processing, so we're gonna talk about it today. How do you know if your product or your offer is good enough to work? The kind of offer that you put it out there and people just snap it up just, oh, that I would like, I would

like that. Please give that to me. You can't have it. It's my like one of those like, people just want it from the jump. You don't have to convince anyone. They see it, they want it, they buy it. Bing, bang, boom. That's happened to us. Maybe accidentally. We put something on sale and it immediately is snapped up. We've also created things that we cannot get anyone to buy.

What if we could figure out the difference between something that's snapped up and something that's just meh? What is the difference between those two? I got a clue this morning, and this is the part I'm still kind of working out, but I think I found a clue in the most random place. Ever. I'm walking on the treadmill every day for an hour. It's part of the fitness program that I'm on, and when I'm on the treadmill for an hour, I

pull up Netflix on my phone, so I'm watching Netflix. There's a new documentary on the band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and it's specifically about how the band was formed, formed way back when in the early eighties. If you're a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, you would know that this band was known for being wild and outta control and groundbreaking. They prided themselves on doing something different. They really wanted to make an impact on their audience because when they came up, it was New Wave. It was punk, it was rock and roll.

It was just getting attention and being different. That's really what the band was founded on. If you're not a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, just trust me, it worked like this band was one of the most unique bands of their time, one of the unique bands that I can think of, and they've now gone on to be Zillionaires. This documentary is about when it all started. It started when they were in high school, so this documentary is like high school till they became the Red Hot Chili Peppers that we know. They're going through interviews and they're all flashing back to how it became what it is, and their bass player, really unique dude calls himself flea, in case you don't know, but their bass player said, I'll tell you exactly when I knew it was going to work.

I'm walking on the treadmill. I'm like, go on. As they're running up to the launch of the band. They're, they're almost the red Hot Chili peppers. This is a couple years before Flea was really dissatisfied with the bands that he was playing in because when he was performing on stage, the crowd wasn't reacting the way that he wanted. It wasn't magnetic. They weren't grabbing people's attention and moving

them enough. It wasn't an arresting reaction. He quit one of the bands to move to another band because that band could engage with the audience be better. And this was all running inside Flea, leading up to the Red Hot Chili peppers. When the Red Hot Chili Peppers played their very first gig together, they only did one song, and it was the first time that their lead singer Anthony Keis sang. It was the first time that they got on stage, the four of them, with Anthony Kitas as the front man. The band doing their thing and they only played one song and Flee said, I knew it was going to work during that very first song, and the way that he expressed it.

I think it's transferable to all of us. So that's all of a runup and me trying to bring you along to the story. If you don't know or care who the red Hot Chili peppers are, you don't need to know who or care about who they are. But I wanted to set the stage for you, no pun intended, so you kind of know how this came to be. Here's this wild band different than everyone else. It's their very first song they've ever played in public, and their founding member knew at that moment it was gonna work. What he observed. He said, we started playing and middle of the song, I look up and look at the audience and he said they didn't know what to do, but they started.

Moving and shaking and, and kind of they were into it. They were uncontrollably affected by the energy and the music that they were making. He said it was visceral. It wasn't thought out. It was just a reaction to what was happening on stage that. It wasn't that they sold out the club. It wasn't that they had sold a bunch of records. It wasn't that they had a bunch of followers. It wasn't how good the song was. Their very first song was terrible. It wasn't even a hit. It was the energy that they brought and the moment that they were creating and the effect that they had.

People couldn't help themselves. And in the documentary, he literally says it like that. People couldn't help themselves. He said, and this was the quote that really got me. He said, you can't tell people to put their hands in the air. You can't tell people to go out and dance when it's right. They just put their hands in the air and they just dance.

It's a reaction to what you're doing. Like, ah, there's something there. There's, there's something there we can learn from. This is me in real time. I'm just telling you how I think about this stuff and I'm sharing it with you super raw, and I want your feedback on this too. Does that make sense? Because I think we can harness this to be better. I do this all the time. I love watching documentaries, especially with unique individuals in history because almost every person that is unique is unique. They discovered some insight or had this belief that was just unable to be compromised. This is how I see this. This is the way it needs to be. I'm gonna run towards this until the reality is there, and it's that insight plus the drive that differentiates them from almost everybody else.

I've watched and read about Winston Churchill as Steve Jobs to Steve Martin, Peewee Herman, red Hot Chili Peppers. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. All of them found some really cool insight, this key differentiator that makes them different than everybody else. I'm bringing this little kernel to the show today because I found it really inspirational and now I want to tie it to your business and my business too.

Frankly, what makes something irresistible? Just your people can't, they can't control themselves. They just, when you start doing your thing, they're just in, it's just electric. When we're trying to launch something new, we're all doing it kind of formulaic and I'm not being critical. There are best practices. You gotta be clear. You gotta describe the transformation. You gotta know who you're targeting. You gotta do all that stuff. But how is it different? How can we add a layer that makes our work. Irresistible reactionary.

Is that something that can be deduced? Can we science that out? Is that something we can accentuate? Is there a habit or is there a workflow or is there a, a filter? Is there something that can be added? So I took this on as a challenge. So the rest of the time on the treadmill, I was thinking, okay. I get his concept. How do we make this usable? How can you take this? How can I take this later on today when I'm actually doing my job, not talking with you? How can we harness that idea? I thought, alright, well here's what goes into an irresistible product.

I think the first thing that we have to have, and this is just table stakes, whatever it is that you're offering someone, it has to be legitimate value. It has to transform someone from point A to point B. It takes them from where they are to where they wanna be. So it has to have value, but that's just, of course it has to have value. People won't give you their money otherwise. That's just basics. Fine. What else would make it absolutely irresistible? And I thought it has to be timely. It has to be something that they need today. Today they are trying to solve this problem. They have this pain in the moment. They want this thing fixed right now.

Is this something that's gotta get done? Is this something that would feel out of place 12 months from now? Is it that present tense? Is it something that people didn't need six months ago? Just really of the moment? And there's another filter that I wanna add to this, but. Stop there. Think of your major offer. Think of the thing that you're out on LinkedIn saying, would you sign up or would you participate in the

product? Or will you buy my dog treats? Whatever your product or offer is. Do you pass those two tests? Is it something that really addresses the moment right now, and is it something that has value of transformation? I'm sure it does. Those are great checks to begin with. What's the third filter? And this is where I think the chili peppers had it. Right? And I think you feel and sometimes run away from, I think the third filter is, are you having fun doing it?

Offers value incredibly timely and you can't wait to do it 'cause you just love it. You just love this stuff. You've met those people at networking before. What do you do? I'm a bookkeeper. Cool. Do you love it? Uh, it pays the bills. No. What do you do? I'm a graphic designer. Do you love it? I absolutely love it. I give people's dreams a picture. I help them visualize what they do. I love it. And Nikki says, passion. I think that's a great way to talk about it, it's passion. And Nikki also says it's similar to Jesse Cole in the Savannah Bananas. Absolutely. They're on a mission and they're having more fun than everyone else.

One of the things I saw, and I'm tying some stuff together here, the inspiration from Flea and the documentary that I saw, but also this meme. I think I saw this meme six months ago and it's just been stuck in my head. You can't compete with someone who is having fun. A hundred percent true. A hundred percent true. When those three things come together, that's when I think we might get to that moment that Flea was talking about. You're no longer selling anyone, you're inviting them to participate in the fund that you're having. And I thought as I was getting ready for the thing, I'm like, is this the flea filter? Is this something that we can use periodically as as a last check before we put a product on sale?

Does your product make them want to get up and dance? And you'll know that you're not in that spot if you're trying to convince people to participate. You're putting it out there over and over and people just aren't getting it. Well, maybe your thing is no fun. Maybe your thing isn't timely. Maybe it doesn't solve the problem. Maybe they don't believe you. But when you get those three things together and you have a product of the moment. I

hope you get to experience that. I've had that good fortune before and there's nothing more exciting than Sale, sale, sale, sale, sale full. Oh man, it's so great. So lean into the timeliness and try and make it irresistible. And I am, I think I wanna bring this up every once in a while. The documentary, by the way, is unbelievable. If you're a Chili Peppers fan, it's on Netflix right now. And if you're just a fan of being a creative. It will teach you how one of the most creative groups ever did it by accident. The whole story talks about how, um, they were just themselves and they were living out a vision and they just happened to turn into the red hot chili peppers.

It was not a put on at all. Nikki asked the question, so how do we make sure that we're having fun? Is it a self-audit? Is it something external? I ask myself inside my Todoist, so I use to-do, is to organize my life. Every two weeks I ask myself what's the most fun thing that I do in the business? And I, 'cause I wanna see what's capturing my curiosity and my attention.

We'll put in an ungodly amount of time on projects and things that we enjoy and it will draw us magneti like, like magnet. It would take us towards. The things that we love to do, I literally ask myself every two weeks and I note what the answers are. It helps me quit things that are no longer fulfilling to me, and it helps me go more towards the things that I'm drawn to.

So that's one way you can do it. Another way you can do it is to monitor how you talk about things. If you are talking about something and you just don't get that, oh, I got the coolest thing, I, I cannot wait to share that with you. If you don't get that feeling, those feelings matter. It really does. So be aware of it. We talk on the show all the time about positioning and targeting the audience and making sure you're delivering value, all of that. This has drawn my attention to something a little bit bigger. We'll call it the flea filter for now until we come up with a better name. Uh, I thought that was fun. AI Story of the day.

Welcome Google to the party. Hey, Google did something useful. Yay. When you think like two years ago, if I said to you, who's gonna win the AI race, don't you think you would've said Google? Google has the biggest search engine on the planet. I'm sure the biggest data, cash anywhere, unlimited amounts of money and AI is pretty existential. Wouldn't you have said Google would be in the lead by a mile and it's not

close? Clearly that's not the case. They're doing. Gemini and Gemini can be good sometimes. I'm not like poo-pooing, Gemini. It seems like Gemini and Google are not the perceptual leaders of the AI race, but Gemini just did something that I'm gonna do a demo and show you, and just like all other demos, this is where I might hit the iceberg. And you get to enjoy when that happens. So we get to share the screen and we get to go and have some fun. So we're gonna do this and we're gonna share the screen. So let's. Share the screen together. Here we go. All right, this is my email. If you wanna be Snoopy, you can look and see who's in my email.

Inside your email, there is a button and I have to make it a little bit smaller. Just for a second till you can see this. All right. In the top corner button up here underneath the Businessing logo. Sorry, that can't go away. There's a blue diamond and that invokes Gemini. So when you click the button, Gemini shows up. Oh, hey. Cool. Gemini's here. Now Gemini is baked into all of your Google products. Now they have released something they're calling personal intelligence, which means Gemini can act as an assistant who's able to access your calendar, your emails, and more. Okay. That's, that's kind of cool. But does it work?

Because my experience with Gemini has been at times it should be able to work and it doesn't. But I tried it this morning, so hey, show me the last four emails from Anne Hill, our director of operations, and it's digging through my email and this is significantly more powerful than search. Let's see if it's going to work this morning. Here are the last four messages. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it gives you the snippets and it gives you the emails and it tells you what's going on. Like,

whoa, okay. Um, that's, that's actually useful. Gemini. Okay. Gemini. Um, I had a conversation with someone about a book, but I don't remember the name of the book. It was about product market fit. Who was that? Because that's like a real query. You've had an issue or an idea that's in your Gmail someplace, but you can't find it. You don't remember what the book is? Well, it found it. Oh yeah, John Zaki. That guy was awesome. He helped write the book. Um. Called click.

Great book by the way. And then the other question that we can demo is, okay, this one's pretty simple, but I got a calendar full today. So who am I meeting with? Just to show you that it can look through your calendar as well. I've been playing with Gemini and it's not been able to do this kind of thing, at least not this directly. And there, there's my calendar for today, all the staff who I'm meeting with and everything. And this is in the grand scheme of things. Fine, fine. Claude Cowork can do this, but the Gemini or the Google Gmail search bar has been hilariously bad for a long time. And now that Gemini has this ability, I feel I can can find things in my email again.

So let's just give you know what it deserves. Google just deserves a golf clap. Just it's a golf clap. Don't you think? Golf clap, and I have a total allegiance to Google. I'm not trying to poo pooh them. I'm on Google Workspace. I have all my docs, all my everything. I am all in on Gemini and or Google at least. And if Gemini can start being awesome. Great. The other thing about the announcement that came out today, this feature used to be

behind a paywall, but now it's free for everybody. So congratulations to Google users. You just powered up and Michael was snooping through the email. Some totally sketchy senders in there. Yeah, I saw your email there, Michael. Sketchy. Sketchy. Like Michael are in my email box this morning and let's see, Nikki says, I need Microsoft to take notes. Alright, Microsoft, they did partner, co-pilot with co-work with Claude, so they're getting smart about that as well. We got the idea slam coming up in today's idea slam.

I've got two questions and they're on opposite ends of the success spectrum. One of them is, Hey, I'm starting to make a little bit more money, but as I'm making more money, my friends are getting kind of weird about it. What should I do? The other end of the spectrum is things are not going well and I know that I need to close, gotta shut the business down, but I just can't

do it. Real questions, like real issues that we need to talk about, and we'll do it after we talk about today's sponsor, our friends at Gen Head sponsoring today's show. Thanks to Gen Head, they are making everything in your business easy to find and use so you can scale your systems. Not chaos. Gen Head is built for early stage entrepreneurs and businesses for founders and solopreneurs and lean teams that just need what they have in their CRM to work, not just another complex tool that requires a full-time operator to drive.

That's streamlined and practical, and you get to act on it immediately If you're tired of not being able to find your stuff, if you're tired of juggling through all of these different systems to run your business. Gen head's got it all from your CRM to your automations, your social media scheduling, your tools, your blogs. You can email people, text people. It pretty much can do everything. With one

clear operating system for less chaos, clearer data, and better execution. Learn more about them@genhead.com. That's gen head.com and simplify your business and the way that you run it every day. Thanks Gen Head for being a sponsor of the show. You know, the idea Slam is here for you. You know that right? I know this week, I guarantee you this week you've had an issue that you didn't know how to solve, but you just kind of did what everybody does. You gutted through it and you thought, you know what I'm, I'm just gonna guess. You don't need to guess.

Next time you've got a challenge or an opportunity, bring it to us. Scan the QR code. Tell us about your challenger opportunity and I'll talk about it on the air. The folks in the chat will help as well. The idea Slam is here so you can make better decisions and move your business forward. Free to participate. And you can even do it anonymously if you don't wanna be on the air. But scan the

QR code and be a part of the idea Slam here on Businessing with Pat Miller. Two questions today. They're on opposite eye, uh, uh, sides of the success spectrum. The first one is, my friends have gotten weird since I started making money. What should I do? One of the great problems to have, isn't it? My business is doing well and I'm making money, yay. But money between friends is really kind of difficult. Money amongst colleagues is also difficult. I could sit here and give you some strategies and, oh, what you need to do is blah, blah, blah.

Let's just cut the crap. There's jealousy and there's envy. Those are major human emotions, and they're tough for people to process. They're especially tough to process for people that have a salary. If they get a salary, they've got great security, they've probably got healthcare, they're happy, good. But if they see an entrepreneur friend start making more money every week or month or year, they might wonder, Hey, hey.

I mean, I remember getting my paycheck and no matter how hard I worked, I still got the same amount of money. Now that you're out running your own business, don't lose touch with that fact. As entrepreneurs, one way that we can make money is to sell new things or more of the things that we sell or raise our prices or build a partnership or whatever.

We literally get to invent cash if we can build products and sell them. So not every one of your friends is going to understand what that is about. The other thing is think back to your own life. You've had a neighbor, maybe a family member, that all of a sudden started to do well. They got a new job or something, and they kind of let you know about it.

They wanted to go out to dinner at the fancier restaurants. They wanted to have family or friend vacations at locations that you couldn't afford. In my world, they wanted to play more expensive golf courses. They drink fancier wine. They invite you to things that you just can't afford. Those are real things, and I don't think they're trying to be rude, but if you, if you've seen it in your life, you can also think about the choices that you are making.

So what should you do about it? I tend not to talk about money with friends as much as humanly possible. If the business is successful or we have a great year, you know, I'll say it between us small business owners, communities where we understand one another. It's where we can talk about success and selling things and celebrating when good things happen because we get it.

There's a group of owners, this is only people that own a business are allowed in the group. We understand one another. It's one of the advantages of having the group so we can celebrate when good things happen. But friends and family, they, they don't get it. And I don't want my relationships changed because of money. I. Be careful when you're talking about your business success and the amount of money that you're making with family and friends 'cause they just might not understand. And there's another thing that you may do that is done for all the right reasons, but could add to the confusion. You have a big sale, you have a big quarter, you have a big year, and you want to share that success.

With your family or friends. So you may treat them all to dinner or something like that, that your thinking is a very generous act, and it is a very generous act. But it could add to the confusion that they have about how money works. And it would remind them that as an entrepreneur, we have unlimited opportunity and maybe they don't. So be careful when you're talking about money because.

It can get weird. So I'm sorry you're going through that, but those are a few thoughts as well. The second question, it's the opposite end of the scale. I know I should close my business if you've been at that dead end before, you know what it feels like, but the question is, I know I should close it, but I can't. What should I do? I have not had. The experience. Well, you know what, I take that back. I have closed a business. I was just gonna say, I've never had to close a business, but I did have to close a business. Two years ago. I had a radio show, 2023. I hosted a show somewhat like this. It was more interview based, but it was broadcast all around the country.

I was on 23 radio stations on Saturday and Sundays, just an hour. It was a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And we had it on the air and we were doing okay. We were doing okay, but we didn't get on enough stations to really drive the audience up and ended up, uh, not getting a great return for the sponsors. And I just had to pull the plug. It just, it just didn't work. So I, I have had to close a business. If you're in the situation where, you know, need, you know you need to close it and you're out of money and you're out of options and you have no other choice, close it. Do it. Why? Debt will follow you unless you declare bankruptcy. But then that's a whole nother animal of bad outcomes, and if you try and keep a business going, the debt will follow you.

And the idea that your business could have worked and you did and it didn't, that will also weigh on you. It really messed with my head for a long time that I had this radio show and I thought it was gonna work and it didn't, man. I felt terrible about that, and I did take a lot of debt outta that experience. It was really expensive to start and end that show. It also made me feel guilty and kind of shameful around closing the business because it feels like, it felt like, to me at least, that if I just worked a little harder, if the show was a little bit better, if I had just a better idea, everything could have worked.

So all of those emotions are really tough to process, and if you need to close the business, you're gonna feel all of them. So it's kind of a warning for you. But there are two other things that I would share. I wish I would've closed it sooner rather than later. When you get down to the final days of a business that you have to close, you're probably gonna be chasing, running additional ad campaigns or trying new strategies to make it work, which is gonna get you deeper into debt.

The second thing I want you to know is that if you had the guts to open a business, you are my hero, literally. You had a vision and you went after it and you didn't settle, I'm gonna do this. You're at least closing the business knowing that you tried. Does that sound corny? Yeah. Is it true? Hell yeah. Why? There are floors and floors and floors of cubicles at the big building downtown with people that wish they had the courage to go out and start their business idea. And they don't. And that's cool. That's their choice. They get to do whatever they want. But if you were courageous enough to give it a shot, you have all of my respect.

This is why I say small businesses are dreams, not jobs. We have a vision and we're gonna do everything we can to make it come true. And when our dream doesn't come true, it is emotionally heavy. It is. I mean, thinking, I'm getting emotional thinking about the show that I had to shut down. I really forgot that I had to do that. Shutting down the business isn't a task list or a to-do list. You're closing off a piece of a piece of your life's work and all of this emotion and energy that you put into it. So I feel for you. Remember that if this business didn't work, that doesn't mean you have to go work for someone else. There may be a different version of the business.

This is a different version of the radio show that I tried to launch. I'm bringing it back and doing it as a live stream. Distributing it digitally doesn't mean you have to stop doing podcasts or whatever it is that you were doing, and it doesn't mean you need to go work for someone else 'cause unemployable. I'm unemployable. So there are options out there for smart, talented, driven people, and if you are in the spot where you have to close it down,

just know that you have my respect and the encouragement for me is to pull the plug sooner rather than later because the debt will follow you. We're gonna cheer up a little bit. That was sad. Uh, I got a great meme to close the show. Something that perfectly summarizes what it's like to run your small business. I will share that here in just a moment. But first, we need to talk about the new AI installation group. Boy, this is really coming on.

We're bringing together small business owners who know that AI needs to be a part of their future, but they don't know where to start. That's the latest research. Everybody knows it's important, but people need to know where to begin and how to get off the ground. The AI installation group launching now April 9th, we have our launch date, morning meetings.

April 9th is the first day, and together this Mastermind is going to work together to understand what needs to be done. Install the automations that we need, and at the end of the six months, we're gonna be playing with agents who are working on our behalf. The developments and the technology and the pace that this is running, it is, it's fun to watch, frankly, and the productivity and the automations that are there for your business now are hard to describe.

So what are you gonna do with your business so you don't fall behind? This is it. The AI installation group will be a monthly mastermind, a monthly AI idea slam. I'll send you a weekly newsletter with all the AI news that you need to know and the AI news you can ignore. Plus, you'll have access to me both email and text. If you get stuck, I'll be right there to help you. It's a six month program that is going to change the businesses of those that enroll. Click the QR code. Save your spot. April 9th is the start of the AI installation group. I would love to have you with us

checking in on the chat here. Michael and Doris and Nikki are having a great conversation. I appreciate, uh. Appreciate you guys playing along. Alright, let's close out the show today with something that I think perfectly summarizes what it feels like to be a small business owner. I saw this and thought, oh, I gotta put this on the show. Adulthood is saying, but after this week, things will slow down a bit over and over until you die.

I, I mean, isn't that. Isn't that what it's like to run a business? Oh, how are things? You know, I'm crazy, but you know, next week's looking a little bit better. No, no, it doesn't. Right now it looks a little bit better, but no, it's, it's gonna stay crazy and I think that's one of the reasons why we love it, to be honest. Before we go, shout out to Michael. By the way, just joined the SBOC community. He is the latest member to join our

community of small business owners collaborating from all around the country. He's in Alabama. I'm in Wisconsin. We got a member from New York the other day. We got members from Indiana the other day. We are all coming together under this idea that we shouldn't have to grow our business by ourself. We should be able to get feedback from other people that are in our scenario, other people that run a business, and I'm purposely keeping it affordable. It's $19 a month. If you're out there trying to figure it out by yourself, it's pretty much a you problem at this point.

Scan the QR code, give the group a shot. I guarantee you're gonna love it. Small business community.com is where you can find out more if you wish. But Michael, my friend, welcome to the community. It's great to have you. All right, that's it for today's business thing with Pat Miller. I appreciate you thinking along with me on the thing that I learned from flea.

If you would've told me that I would watch a documentary on the Red Hot Chili peppers, and they would give me insight on how to run a business, I would not have believed you, but to see his authenticity and drive around what made them them. Ah, man. I had to bring that to the show today. Sponsored by Gen Head. Produced by Gen Head as well. Thanks to them for making this possible. If you're watching the show, make sure that you like and subscribe. It's really important. If you like it more people will know we exist. If you subscribe, I'll show up in your feed every day when we go live, and if you leave us a comment.

That way we can know what we're doing well and what we should do more of all of those things are really important to help grow the show. But that's it for today's show. We'll be back here tomorrow at 11:00 AM for our final show of the week because Friday's off Guy. Thanks for tuning in. Talk to you tomorrow. Take care.