Episode 119: Stop Being the Best Kept Secret: Why Talking About Your Business is Non-Negotiable

In this episode, we dive into one of the most important—and often overlooked—aspects of running a successful business: talking about it. Too many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of becoming the “best-kept secret” in their industry, but here’s the thing: if no one knows what you do, how can they work with you? Spoiler alert—they can’t.

We share personal stories, reflections, and practical strategies for getting comfortable with sharing your business authentically (and no, it’s not about being salesy all the time). From celebrating wins to giving behind-the-scenes glimpses, we break down how to talk about your business in a way that builds connection, trust, and, ultimately, momentum.

You’ll hear about Amanda’s lessons from realizing people still didn’t know about her business after a decade, Lynn’s experience of constantly explaining what she does (and why she’s not a life coach), and why your family or friends might not get it—and that’s okay.

We also challenge you to take action: What steps can you take today to talk about your business more consistently? Whether it’s posting more testimonials, sharing client success stories, or just giving people a glimpse into your day-to-day, we encourage you to start small but start now.

Oh, and if your circle isn’t supporting you in talking about your business, maybe it’s time to find a new circle (we’ve got cookies over here).

This episode is packed with real talk, a little tough love, and a lot of encouragement to show up and share your passion with the world. So, what’s stopping you?

Key Takeaways:

• Why being the “best-kept secret” is a recipe for business stagnation.
• How to talk about your business without sounding salesy.
• Why consistency matters and how to keep it authentic.
• The importance of building know, like, and trust with your audience.
• Why it’s okay if some people just don’t “get” what you do.

Action Item:
Send us a message and tell us about your business! What do you do? Who do you serve? Let’s celebrate and amplify your amazing work.

Until next time, get after it!

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube or Spotify and leave us a review!

• Like the show? LEAVE US A REVIEW wherever you listen!
• Have a question? CONTACT US at info@thepursuitofbadasserie.com!

Want to sponsor us? Find out how HERE.

…

Read the full transcript of this episode below:

 

Lynn Howard

Yeah. Hey, I’m Lynn.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

And I’m Amanda. Welcome to the pursuit of badassery and the podcast. Today, we’re talking about something that I hate talking about because it drives me insane.

And I wish I didn’t ever have to have this conversation again. So hopefully by the end of this podcast, I will have imparted all of you how important it is to talk about your business.

Today, we’re talking about how important it is to talk about your business.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, you know, it’s interesting when you brought up this topic, I was reminded of so many different moments of having this conversation.

And I actually remember one in particular when I owned franchise and we were talking about we had like a group of non franchisees in that were part of like a training process essentially for us to learn how to like train them in different things.

And this one girl had this story. about how essentially she was a financial advisor and she never, she didn’t want to burden her family.

You know, they, she thought that they knew what she did or whatever. And all of a sudden she’s out of family gathering.

And one of her relatives was like, yeah, I just signed with this new financial advisor. And I forget how much it was like a ridiculous amount of money.

And she was so pissed that they went with another financial advisor. And I remember like looking here and saying, when was the last time you talked to them about what you did?

And saw if I didn’t want to, they know what I do. And I don’t want to help them because they’re family.

Well, you actually put yourself in this position. And so, I mean, now there’s a bit more complexity, especially when it comes to money and different things.

also family doesn’t always want to do business with family, which is a whole other topic and understandable. But the simple fact is, is that she didn’t talk about our business.

She didn’t let people know that she wanted to. business in that particular situation and not okay like give story after story after story where even with myself like to like people didn’t know like I was open for business right they thought that I was full capacity because I wasn’t talking about my business so much like it’s such an interesting loophole that we get into.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

And I think there’s a lot of people who have that fear that they’re going to upset their family or their friends or overwhelm them or or maybe feel bad or yeah feel bushy and sales.

But I keep thinking about all those parties that they throw now and maybe maybe I’m just one of the person who throws these kind of parties.

But where you do like a presentation to find out what your friends do because nobody knows what anybody does for a living because nobody talks about it.

And I think that’s crazy that you’ll have these long-term relationships with people and you’ll have no idea what they do.

You have no idea what’s in their business. don’t know what they’re selling. don’t know what You don’t even know that you go to them when you needed something.

remember I put in floors in one of my brick and mortars like tile and wood floors and I had no idea that one of my best friends worked at a flooring store.

How did I not know that? mean it took like I was all the way like months into the process trying to select how she’s like do you want me to look at it?

Like I I think I have that tile in stock and I’m like you have a tile. I had no clue that she had and it I it didn’t save you money in the end because in the end I used her so but it would have saved me months of time if I had just known and she had ever talked about it.

If we’ve ever had a discussion about it but and I think I deal with clients all the time. mean there’s it’s a constant conversation of this product isn’t selling and then I asked when’s the last time you talked about that product.

Oh well it’s been a couple months but people know I have it. I’m like no they don’t. When’s the last time you mentioned it on social media?

was like like six months ago I put it up there and it was on there for a while. Oh, and I’m like, six months ago, your social media platform was good for like four hours.

didn’t see it. They didn’t see it. And so feeling, they feel bad about sending emails out. don’t want to, I don’t want to send more than one email about it because they’re going to get upset.

I’m like, no, they’re not. They probably didn’t see the first 10 emails you sent. And I say that as somebody who has 50 emails from certain companies that are sitting in my inbox, I haven’t looked at them.

And I’ll look at it later, but like, oh, would have been a really cool nail to about it was seven months ago.

Whoops. So people feel like everybody is like, oh, they’ll be so mad at me if they, they’re going to just, they’re going to want to instantly put me in spam.

No, people are, people are self absorbed, people care about themselves. So they don’t know about your business. They don’t know that you’re selling a new t-shirt.

They don’t know that you got a new line of stuff in. And even if they’re inside your brick and mortar, and I, this happened with one of my employees like a month ago or actually like two weeks ago, I told them that I told them a specific script.

I need you to. I So like sell this thing and even though the client had walked by the rack of clothes the same shirt they’d walked by it maybe 50 times in that four or five months it was pointed out to them and then they bought it because they just were like blinders didn’t see it like if I hadn’t made fine employee literally say this shirt is on sale it never would have sold because people have blinders on they’re not thinking about that thing so you got to talk about your business you got to talk about the stuff you got to sell the stuff by talking about the stuff otherwise what are you doing what are you doing what are this you’ll have any clients because you’re not talking about it that’s why oh absolutely I mean you know when we get into the sales aspect with different clients you know they are they’re so afraid of that because they feel like they’re being like pushy or that they have such you know they want to stay humble and have humility and that is guiding

Lynn Howard

and I’m not, not boasting about their, their products or services and their business and, and it’s hurting. It’s hurting you because people do not know what you have to offer.

And because we’re so overstimulated, you have to say in people’s, um, front of mind, right? So, and as far as emails, you know, it kind of kills me is that people subscribe to your email list.

I do subscribe to people’s email list and maybe get one or two things and I’m who hates emails. I do not read them.

I hate emails so much. I mean, I’m so bad at emails and then I’ll get into a habit where I’m staying on top of them.

But at the end of the day, like they subscribe to your email list so communicate with them. If they are tired of getting so many, have an option in your email CRM where they can get less emails versus having all the emails that are coming or maybe they’re just getting this particular

Type of email and not the other emails. There are so many different things that you can do To be able to help regulate that after the fact, but if you’re not talking about your business Maybe you have a couple of referral partners, but you’re not saying it top of mind You’re not people aren’t gonna buy from you because they don’t know what you’re selling They don’t know that you’re open for business and I use air quotes loosely there Yeah talking about your business Is you having a business?

It’s about education. It’s about connection. It’s about Letting people know that you’re open to take business. It is such a weird rabbit hole that we get in It’s insane and you know to go back to a comment that you made about like even with clients And I know we went through this a couple of times with some clients In our badassery It’s like oh, I have this product in it

that’s telling well or I’m about to release this product and okay well how are you gonna get it out there oh I don’t know well if you build it they’re not gonna come and I know we’ve talked about that we have podcasts on it like for ‘s sake like you have to do the work in order to get it out there and so you have to talk about your business if you don’t talk about your business then you don’t have a business absolutely I think people think that because the internet is so all-encompassing that just putting it out on the interweb is going to create business for you it’s not that’s not how the internet works that’s great but that’s why things like seo exists it’s not just going to blow up overnight because you made a website and you have something available like you have a digital product available it’s that’s not how it works you’ve got to talk about it you’ve got to convince people about it in the old days I’ll put that in quotes it used to be the rule of seven so it was seven points of contact before you know a coldly

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

become a buyer. now, I don’t know the exact number, but I’m sure it’s more than that because people are inundated now.

I mean, back in the olden days, there just weren’t as many opportunities to get inundated. We didn’t get notifications on a phone.

didn’t have phones. had a lot more print media. There wasn’t as much email marketing. Those things really didn’t exist.

I remember how blown away I was the first time I read an email and my name was in it.

was like, it’s just a quick automation. in the olden days, it was very impressive. But I don’t know how many touch points it takes now.

I probably should do the research on it, but I’m sure it’s over 20 because you just get hit over and over.

And it’s such a fast, mean, anybody who’s ever tried to find something that they saw on Facebook knows how impossible it is to find something again.

Oh, I think I saw this video. luck finding it again. Good luck. If you didn’t save it, tag it, do something.

You’re never going to see it again because it churned so quickly. So if you’re still going by that hole, if I say it once or twice, that’s enough, it’s not.

You should say it once or twice like a day, or at the very least a week, if you’re trying to sell something or trying to get the word out there about anything you’ve got to talk about it, because people are inundated with information and they just aren’t getting it the way they used to.

If you’re holding on to that idea that they only need one or two points of contact, new slash, they’re going to need way more in order to finally see the project all and then to build no like trust and then to eventually give you the credit card for whatever it is you’re selling, it takes time and it takes you doing the work of actually talking about it.

Lynn Howard

Yeah, so you brought up a good point and I think it is 15 to 20 points. It doesn’t matter, but it’s that there’s a difference between talking about your business and selling, right?

So making the distinction, I mean, there’s a time for everything. So you need to build the note like trust that’s talking about your business that’s leading with stories that’s being authentic that’s sharing the value and aspects that’s just talking about it and then there’s a selling cycle or the sales aspect of it where you’re saying hey this is a solution come here right depending on what type of sales person you are from a solution oriented to a pushy sales person that that is a different conversation but you talking about your business the majority of the talking about your business is like building value and talking about stories and sharing that transparency or that personality that you have letting people know that you’re passionate about it that you’re in it or like this is a client uh study case study or testimonial um all of that adds to when it’s time to actually sell um because a lot of times

people like, okay, well, I’ll talk about my business, but it just is only when they’re selling product. If they get to that point, like some people, I mean, I were just talking about something, but, you know, that sometimes they don’t even try to sell the product.

They think that the algorithms well, or the ads. But all of a sudden, people are just like, individuals trying to just sell, sell, but they haven’t built any, no, like trust because they haven’t been talking about their business.

So I’ll put that in your just being this pushy person. When you should be like building, it’s kind of like, it’s the long game.

And so you should be always talking about your business in different ways. And talking about your business is different than selling a product or service.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

And I also want to draw the question here. What is the pain point? What is the block you have about talking about your business?

What is it? What’s the thing? And I’ll give you a very obvious example. When I I used to own

a pull dancing studio back in the days before pull dancing was a thing okay so we’re talking like early 2000s.

I didn’t talk about my business for a couple of reasons. One of them I wasn’t sure how my day job was going to take it.

Two it was so taboo that when I the one time I put my phone number in I was getting like breather calls and so I’m like you know what I’m not doing I’m not talking about it I’m not going to let anybody know it’s all going to be sort of like under the radar under the table and that’s how I started the business and that worked for what it was for that reason.

However if I tried to do that same formula now I tell you right now I would have no money.

I would have no money because you can’t be afraid of the negative things that are going to come down.

I mean if it came down to like 500 breather calls I would still do it because I would vent out those breather calls like I wouldn’t let that stop me because now

I know better and that I actually hindered a lot of my growth in the early stages when I could have just completely blown up because I was nervous about what other people thought.

I was nervous about like the stigma that society, I was worried about what my boss at the time was.

I still had a normal nine to five at the time. I was worried what they were going to think.

I was worried what family was going to think and all this like unnecessary fear that really amounted to nothing and I stunted my growth and I could exponentially have grown.

If I look back at the numbers, like, oh, you’re such an idiot, Amanda. But moving forward to starting businesses, now I would never do that and when I find clients that really struggle about talking about their products and services, a lot of it comes from that fear of not wanting to be salesy, wanting to be maintain your authenticity, doing all these things and I feel like the most important thing is kind of work out.

Why is it that you’re sticking on this? Why is it that you… don’t want to talk about your business.

you ashamed of it? Are you worried about the fear that someone else? you fear? Is it a fear of Is it a fear of what other people will think in your community?

If there’s a fear of that, then I would recommend that you surround yourself with different people who lift you up and aren’t throwing you down.

what’s the thing that’s holding you back? Because that fear of sales often is just the internalized fear. They don’t want to be icky.

They don’t want be the salesman. don’t want to be the car salesman. You don’t have to be that kind of salesperson.

Talking about your business doesn’t mean that you’re a sleaze ball. It doesn’t mean that you’re trying to get all your friends to sign up for your MLM.

And even if you do, even if you have an MLM, go ahead. They’re down with your bad stuff. Talk about it.

Talk about it. You don’t know who’s going to want to be your next person. And if you throw out there the assumption that nobody’s going to want to hear from me and people are going to be turned off by that, then you’re already then you’re already right.

Because you’re coming from a place of fear and a place of assuming that they’re not going to want your product or service for whatever reason.

And if that’s your reason for not getting business, then it doesn’t matter because either way, you’re not going to get business.

And coming from a place of serving, coming from a place of solving a problem, you’re always going to want to talk about it.

So I would question, and I would challenge you to really think about why you don’t want to talk about what you’re talking about.

Do you, are you not proud of it? Do you not like your business? Do is there somebody like, what’s the reason?

Because there’s got to be a block there because I feel like when I’m really into it, I want to talk about it all the time.

I’m fine being the annoying one who talks about her boat.

Lynn Howard

We love our business and our lives revolve really around our business. But at the same time, again, I do want to stress there is a time you were going, you should be talking about your business, 85% of the time, and the sales is the sales kind of talking about your business.

only about 15, 10, 15% of the time. yeah. And you know what’s interesting, and I know we did a podcast about this, we’ve actually done some posts, it is about like the whole best kept secret.

Like if you are not talking about your stuff, then nobody knows what you do. And so, okay, if you wanna be the best kept secret, you’re not a recipe, right?

We’re only you’re making it. At the end of the day, you are hindering your growth by not talking about your business, by not sharing.

And again, it should not be salesy. Only 10, 15% of the time should be salesy. Otherwise, it’s like just talking about like winds and this and that and behind the scenes and clients and giving depending on your type of business lead back.

to different stuff or whatever, adding value and not from a preacher’s standpoint. But yeah, that’s the best kept secret, the worst.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

I would never want to be the best kept secret. I want to be like the go-to, the person you know, the one that every, I mean, fact, I had a business once where I felt like one of the common things I said was, how do they not know we’ve been here?

We’ve been here for like a decade. How do they not know? How do they not know? That’s on me.

They don’t know about you because I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t get out there because I didn’t put us out there.

didn’t, that was on me so that people not knowing in my old, like my old ways, I thought that it was that they didn’t know about it because they were so ignorant.

Like, how could they not know they’re just dumb there? I don’t know what else they’re doing. How could they not know about my business?

Again, it was making it about me from an ego standpoint. If I build it, they will come. It doesn’t work that way.

People are doing their own stuff. People are involved in their own thing. So if you want your business to grow and you want people to know about the problems that you solve and if you want to share your passion with the world, you got to talk about it.

You got to talk about it. This is your open invitation to talk about it. In fact, I want you all to send us a message and talk about it.

Tell us about your business. We want to know about your business. Talk about your business.

Lynn Howard

Yes, I agree. Love it. I can’t wait to see who who of you are actually going to tell us about your business.

I love that. Listen, in order to have a business, in order to have momentum, you have to have to talk about it.

So what are some steps that you’re going to do besides tell us about your business that are going of who you are and what you do.

So what are just a couple of steps that you’re going to do to create that consistency. Because if you want different results, you have to do different.

If you want more business, you have to do different. And this is where you start, like, talk about your business.

How can you amp it up? Even 10%. So more posts, more testimonials, whatever it is, but start talking about your business.

Sorry.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

Sorry, not sorry. 100%. Sorry, not sorry. Talk about your business. We welcome you to talk about your business. And I’ll even go so far to say, the people who don’t want to hear about your business, you know, you’ll never hear an entrepreneur talk down to somebody starting a business.

The same thing. your circle is telling you not to talk about your business, I need you to find a new circle, you can be in our circle.

You can talk about your business all day long. Come, come over here.

Lynn Howard

We have cookies. Well, I would say, because I know that there are some people like that’s all we talk about this podcast and some free.

We’re talking to the people who don’t talk about their business, who expect people. to just automatically know what they do.

I mean, you know, I was thinking of this one. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told my parents what I do, but because they they still don’t.

They still don’t understand. They still understand. But and this isn’t anything against them. It’s just they are not of that world.

They’re not entrepreneurs and they just don’t understand. So it’s so like it’s so it’s falling on deaf ears because they just can’t conceptualize what it is.

So listening or like listening to people explain what I do. If one more person calls me a coach, I’m going to a life coach.

I’m going to stab them in their eye. Like, I am not yes.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

Deep throat crunch on that deep throat bunch on that one.

– Lynn Howard

You know, it’s funny though.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

You mentioned that because I had my family over during Christmas and they were in the room while I was having a couple of my consulting calls and they were such very different clients.

One was, you know, I was looking at like, tie labor laws. Another one was a big corporate group, and they were doing a team building.

Another one was like a startup. And the conversations that we were having were so different. They’re like, what is it that you do again?

I don’t really understand based on your conversation. One side of it is it was, what is it you do?

Because those were very different conversations. I’m like, yeah, but that’s you got to talk about it. got to talk about your things, but they have literally no clue.

feel like at this point, they’re still kind of no, mom and dad, if you’re listening, no. Yeah.

Lynn Howard

And that’s okay because some people don’t get it. And it’s not for them to get, and it is what it is.

But start talking about your business, put it out there. Don’t do the if you build it, they will come kind of mentality.

have to be out there building no trust, consistent with that. And you do that in many different ways. For those of you who only talk about your business, um, maybe get a hop.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

It’s good. Unless your business is your hobby or maybe you open your hobby and then it becomes a business.

I’m guilty of that. I have a hobby and I just have to create a business.

Lynn Howard

And maybe diversify your life just a little bit. Just a little bit. And I’m speaking from experience sometimes some of us are our businesses are life and it’s so interwoven but that’s neither here nor there.

And that wasn’t a sap that was a personal reflection for both of us manned up. Anyhoo, share this with your people.

Let them. And then tell them about your business. Use this as a calling card to say, Hey, I’d like to talk to you about my business just little bit.

Like who is my ideal client? What I do? Ask me questions. Get to know. You do the same for them.

You next time.

The Pursuit of Badasserie (Amanda Furgiuele)

Get after it.