And I've been observing it happen to other people. But I've definitely been observing that for myself, I have been impacted by some of the new kind of rules of how you should run your business. Now, when I first started talking about all this stuff, I feel like back when I first started this podcast, hustle culture was way more mainstream, there's a lot more criticism of it now. Back when I first started this podcast, the needing to be visible all the time narrative was very mainstream, the needing to be posting all the time, the you know, there was a lot of advice around like, more manipulative, like sales practices. And we're seeing this criticism of that much more mainstream now. And I'm really happy about that. I think that that is fantastic. However, I am now I was over the past year, certainly being impacted by some of these narratives. And it's been very interesting to me to notice, because I was absolutely and in many ways still am, one of the people who has been kind of elevating this critical, you know, has been very critical of these business practices. And also, I'm being impacted by hearing them all the time. And it's been an interesting thing for me to wrestle with. But, um, if you are a listener of the show, then you know that or maybe you don't, I put out an episode. Back in September, it was called stop marketing to the hassles of your industry, you can go back and find that it was from September, I believe it was episode like 146, maybe, where I first touched on this topic publicly. And I think I mentioned like, this is something that's been bubbling for me for a while, and I haven't felt ready to talk about it publicly. But I think I've processed some stuff. And now I'm ready to talk about it. And I shared something that I was seeing happening online, where disruptive business owners, people who wanted to shake things up and want to have a impact on their industry, where they are challenging the way that things are being done, I was noticing that they were kind of spending. And I put myself in this category, because I used to be this person to a lot of time kind of yelling at the people whose behavior they want to change and very little time thinking about what their community actually needs from them, right? The people who they actually want to help what those people need to hear, rather than like yelling at the assholes, basically, of your industry. And this had led me to unfollow quite a few people on social media and unsubscribe from several newsletters, because I noticed that the constant criticism was getting in my head and it was doing something to me were like, I think that I wasn't, it was sneaky, right? Because I didn't realize at the time that I was falling prey to a lot of the things that I speak out against, like it was stifling my creativity, it was making me afraid to speak up, it was making me focus so much on doing things the right way that that I was kind of afraid to show up as consistently, I don't know, it was it was weird. So I ended up having to just unfollow and unsubscribe from a whole bunch of accounts, because it was too much. Now, back in December, so this was just a couple of months ago. At this point, if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that I shared a post on Instagram, it was a carousel post where I talked about and I actually pinned it to the top of my profile. So if you want to find me, I'm Briggs Monaghan on Instagram, I talked about having PTSD and how one of my greatest fears is being bad, like, quote unquote bad or finding out that I am actually a terrible person. And thus I deserve like terrible treatment. And how the most triggering corner of the internet for me right now or over the past couple of years is the one that's devoted to current calling out harmful business practices. I put this post up because I felt like okay, you know what I've been simmering on this for like a year, I've been trying to reconcile this and figure out how we can do better and I'm ready to start talking about it publicly. I want to share with you in case you missed that like a little bit about what I said there. And then in the rest of this episode, I want to talk about like how I think we can do things better. Because I've been thinking about this quite a bit for the past couple of months. And here's the thing, like we need to challenge the way that things are being done. We absolutely need to and also we need to be aware of the impact that the just constant kind of criticism is having on people and also the impact that it might be having on you. And I think that we also need To be willing to step into creation mode so that we can actually create something better. So let me share a bit with you about what I said in this post, I got a whole bunch of DMS and comments where some of you were like, Oh my gosh, I feel like this is exactly what I've been going through. And so I think that you might find it relatable. So I said, I have PTSD, one of my greatest fears is being bad or finding out the despite my best efforts, I'm actually a terrible person who deserves terrible treatment. And for me, the most triggering corner of the internet is the one devoted to calling out harmful business practices. I was once very active in that space, and I spent a lot of time calling out unethical business practices. But now I'm concerned, I'm concerned because I think that those of us who fear being bad or doing that, or lacking self awareness, being part of the problem, inadvertently hurting people, we are the ones who are drawn to that space. And I think that it is making many high integrity folks even more fearful of taking steps to grow their businesses, because of the level of criticism that is ringing in their minds. I'll speak for myself, when I say that it creates a false sense of security. So to surround myself with these conversations, all of the potential quote unquote, wrongs are on my radar, and I'm on the quote unquote, good team. And at the same time, the amount of time that I have to spend explaining to struggling business owners that they are not doing anything wrong by owning the power of their work, or by strategically growing their business is also concerning to me. I think that those of us who fear doing wrong are drawn to these spaces as a way to protect ourselves from the potential backlash or punishment that could come from growing our businesses, and then finding out that we're actually money grubbing sleazebag pieces of garbage. Meanwhile, the people who are building manipulative marketing machines have ducked out of the conversation a long time ago. Thus, the messages included intended for them are landing on the wrong, folks. So I want to be clear, right? I am not saying that these conversations shouldn't be had. Not for a moment, I think that calling out a harm is important. I think unethical business practices should be named as such. And I think that the conversation should continue. But I also have a lot of respect for folks who are doing this work, which is why my hands are shaking as I was typing this Instagram post, because I know that this might strike a nerve for people who I know are well meaning, but I think that we need to take some responsibility. So I called for us all to collectively take some responsibility. Number one for number one, me. So I take responsibility for my own triggers by removing people from my orbit, who talked to their entire audience like they are assholes. In my moments of clarity, I'm confident that I'm not an asshole. So I'm not going to subject myself to being spoken to that way. And if my work makes you feel that way, then I would invite you to unfollow me as well. Right. So first of all, I think we do need to take some responsibility for ourselves. It's not anybody else's problem that I am. I don't think that it's anybody else's problem that I'm feeling like very triggered by that corner of the internet, I'm just going to remove myself from it right. The second thing is, I asked you to take some responsibility by asking yourself who you're trying to help and interrogating if the conversations that you're having are really helping your people, or if they are instead acting as a way for you to signal that you are one of the quote unquote, good ones or two gatekeepers, because there is a lot of gatekeeping going on y'all. There are a lot of people who have you know, they're talking about how they've been doing this for so long, and they know what they're doing. And there's all of these quote unquote, coaches, I love the square the scare quotes around coaches, who are just trying to like manipulate you out of money. It feels very gatekeeping to me, so I'm also calling for people to take responsibility for that, and for all of us to take some responsibility by asking ourselves like, who are we trying to help? And what did they need from us, and to the corner of the internet that claims to be trauma informed, and is highly concerned with how bro marketers plan people's trauma. I am calling for these folks to sit with the reality that you are also playing on people's trauma. People are afraid of doing wrong by their communities. I am not saying stop talking about this stuff. I'm just asking you to recognize and own the nuance of this. And think about how you're impacting the people that you want to help. Because if we can sit with that, and we can reconcile that and we can figure out how to do better, it's going to make the conversation about ethical business a lot better for everybody. Again, I have a lot of respect for folks who speak out and continue to speak out against unethical business practices and expose the reality of the business development industry. There's clear issues, but I think it's time to take note of who we are talking to hear and who we're trying to help. And if the messages that we are sharing are even making it to the folks that we want to call out and thus the ways that we may be stirring up fear for the people who we are saying we want to help right