Within the first six months of me being a coach for coaches, I had a sales call with a guy and he said to me, you know what?

I had another coach.

I had this coach.

And he mentioned a coach who was big in the industry at that time.

And he told me, but that coach is just such a bad person because this coach is so expensive and it's not worth the money.

It's such a bad program.

And he told me that a lot of the clients for this person had left the program and had gone to the media and had gone to lawyers because they wanted to get their money back.

And I remember at that time, just starting my career, I was thinking, oh, my God, what a horrible person this person is.

Yeah, so let's talk about that.

Let's talk about shit storms and let's talk about what it means to build a business and build a brand where we stand out, where we challenge the status quo, and where we're bold enough to take upon ourselves to make a real impact for people.

Because it's not just that we saw that or you saw that when you started out.

I think every coach that we've been with have had some kind of shitstorm happening when we started out.

The person who helped us in our beginning of our coaching, he is one of the best marketers that I know.

He still is.

He's so great at doing that.

He has the biggest heart and he focuses on his family, his kids, and he cares for his clients to the level that I would say we do.

Yeah.

And within the first kind of six months, something happened.

There was a public conflict where someone said something and kind of tried to smudge him.

And the thing was, I knew this person personally.

I also knew the impact that he had on us and the way that he helped us to really get our coaching businesses started.

And because I knew him personally, I knew that, oh, shit, okay.

There's something going on here that isn't just about him.

And when we graduated his program and we started with the next coach, we saw the same thing.

It happened again.

I think it's important to say what happened, because what happened was a full blown shitstorm.

People writing all over the Internet, this person is a scammer and a lot of bad stuff.

Yeah, that's what happened.

And was sitting in the program, knowing this person personally, knowing the program, knowing the program, and knowing the person getting.

The results of the program.

Yeah.

A lot of the people saying it was not in the program or we knew them because they'd left the program.

Yeah.

And they weren't showing up.

So we saw it from the other side and I think that's exactly what you're saying.

The first time I started thinking, okay, maybe it's not just about the person.

And that was with our first coach.

And the thing is, every coach that we've been with has been called a scammer or has been called a scam artist, a bullshitter, a manipulator or whatever it is.

And it's really opened my eyes to what's happening out there.

Not to cover up that.

Been through a shitstorm as well.

So why does a shit storm occur?

Will it happen to everyone?

No, it won't.

But if you grow big enough, you are going to grow past, let's call it a threshold where you're so big that people are naturally going to have opinions.

Yeah.

And people are going to think stuff and some people are going to think stuff without even knowing what it is that you're doing because they are kind of just jacking into another conversation that they've been a part of.

Absolutely.

The more you grow, the louder the critics become around you.

I mean, for everyone listening to this go out, take whatever big name there's in the industry and write that name and scam and you will have tons of people having opinions and writing that.

So it's common thing that happens when we grow, however and when we build a brand.

And I also want to do this cross reference because there are people out there who deserves love and who's doing a really great job.

Let's talk about Tony Robbins.

I love Tony Robbins.

I love what he's done for me personally.

And I also love the work and the commitment that he has for to end suffering in human beings, period.

So that's really cool.

But there again, a lot of hate.

Another thing that scares people is that what do we become when we get that kind of responses?

And it doesn't make us into Andrew Tate or Donald Trump, where you are very polarized.

Just because there is noise and just because there are haters doesn't mean that we become a radical person.

So we're still sensible.

And I think that distinction is important to just make that just because there are people having opinions out there doesn't mean that you can't be the great person that you are or the person who cares beyond.

No, it has nothing to do with that in my opinion.

Like it's.

It's something completely different when we have strong opinions that is going against where most people are and when we start standing out, which is what growth is we stand out compared to most coaches in the industry.

That is where people start having opinions about you.

But it's also about what we are talking about or the topic we talk about.

I believe a big part of the shitstorm we've been through has to do with us.

I felt it since the beginning because all the niches I've been in has been about finances, about money.

And we are not afraid of talking about money and mentioning money and talking about, you should make money because it's a business, you should make money, otherwise you don't have a business.

And we are not afraid of talking to the people who really want to make a great living for themselves and make bigger impact in the world.

But it triggers a lot.

I mean even.

Even the name we have, the millionaire coaches.

I know that triggers some people and fun fact for everyone wondering millionaire coaches.

It actually came from the days when we were doing everything in Danish and Swedish because our promise was that our clients would do at least a million of Danish or Swedish kroners inside our.

Program, which is about 100 and 150,000 for context.

And that is very important.

But course it triggers people.

And when we are speaking, we're loud about building a lifestyle, we're loud about growth, we're loud about building an empire, going for your dreams, making a huge impact.

A couple of episodes ago we talked about, we.

We want to make an impact.

It's not just that we want to make a major impact, like a huge impact for a few people.

And it's not like we want to meet a lot of people making a small impact.

We want to meet a lot of people and we want to make a great impact.

And that's what we take a stand for.

And with that comes a certain vulnerability.

Vulnerability to other people's opinions.

And that has been something that we are aware of.

But we still think it's too important to pass on or to not treasure and value.

So that's just what we have decided.

So of course it triggers people.

Yeah, 100%.

So I really want to just be completely transparent in this episode about our own journey to share.

Like, I think that's what we can do the best.

How it feels for us, how it felt for us, what happened to us and what lessons we got out because it's been such a journey to go through.

And I believe it's the things that no one really talks about, but I believe it's important to talk about because it happens and it happened to us.

It also happens to most successful clients.

The reason why we want to talk about it is because we do not want people to be afraid of.

What if someone has an opinion about some things at one point?

Because what happens to us as a coach when we get into this experience?

Well, I've had it a couple of times.

We had a really big shitstorm, like six months ago, I believe it was.

Which is why we really weren't ready to talk about it for a long time.

Because we needed to land in it and have some lessons.

Yeah, we need to sort it out.

But we had that.

I also had the first shitstorm I had.

It was huge for me at that time because I was fairly new.

I had 20 clients.

And this was started by a client who didn't really want to do the program after sign up and started and started to talk about me to others.

It spread out groups and started talking about it.

And I remember I got kicked out of some groups and I could see people sharing rumors around different groups.

A lot of my competitors at that time started taking those stories, stories that they were competitors.

Never been in the program.

Started sharing those stories in different groups on Facebook.

Yeah.

And I remember because I was standing on the outside looking in because we were running separate businesses at that time.

And I remember that we looked at together someone that never knew you, never talked to you, that was a competitor in your market that was making their own story and sharing about Sanny.

Yeah.

Never spoke to you.

Just looked at your profile, perhaps.

I find that very interesting.

I remember I completely started doubting myself because I was new.

So I doubting, like, okay, am I doing something wrong?

Am I hurting people?

Is this something I'm not doing right?

And I got into a place where I didn't want to show up.

I was fearing my meetings with my clients because I was out of myself.

And I was so afraid of being judged and people having opinions about me.

So I became more and more of a pleaser to have everyone be happy.

Not a great coach.

That is not really helping anyone.

Not helping anyone, but really doing what.

You had to in order to get a grasp of what's going on.

So I started playing small.

And if I did not at that time have you on the side, if I did not have a coach on the side to actually hold my hand and tell me this is normal.

It's because you're starting to grow.

It's because you are.

You have opinions and you're actually making a difference.

Because my clients got results.

That will happen.

That will happen.

And if I had not had that support system around me, I'm not sure I would have continued.

I would say I want to do something where I don't need to meet people.

Yeah.

And then we got into a new situation half a year ago where previous clients of ours who graduated 18 months ago had contacted a newspaper and kind of like, ran a story.

And when I say story, it's like, for the newspaper.

And the journalist picked this up and they wanted to interview us, so they did.

At this time, we were doing everything that we could to understand that the newspaper have their agenda.

They have a business, they have a narrative, and they want to present a story, and they want to angle the story the way they think is going to attract the most readers.

So we were aware of that.

At the same time, we wanted to make sure that how can we be as transparent as we can and really communicate what's important to us?

Because for me personally, what was hardest about that was that we were talking about people that I and you had been personally invested in a lot and that we really cared for and that we really did everything that we could to help them.

And they got amazing results as well.

They made six figures, and much more than six figures as well.

They literally went from zero to six figures.

Like, they've never had that kind of business.

That is what we do.

It's.

It would actually have been easier for us if we focused on established coaches who already knows what it means to run a business they're already making, if not six figures, close to six figures, and then work with these people, helping them to grow even more than they're doing.

And we do when we come across them, but it's not our initial target audience.

What we are really looking for is we're looking for coaches that we can help from wherever they are.

And guess what?

Most coaches make less money than more money, which means that we want to make sure that we bring this service to the industry of coaching.

Because for us, coaching is to help people.

And if everyone gets coaching, everyone feels better about it.

The coach feels better because they can get an income, make a living out of something that they love, which is helping people.

All of their clients are getting helped and amazing results, which means that there is win, wins everywhere.

And we want to make an impact in that area.

That's what we took a stand for.

So the thing that we came to when we were in that interview, we talked just before and we talked.

What is the most important thing for us to get through and communicate?

And what we came up with is what is our core?

It's number one.

We're really sad that we have this conversation at all.

That's number one.

We're.

We're sad that people feel this way.

And we're also acknowledging that we can change their mind if they don't want to.

We can't change what they feel or what they think without them coming to us and talking about us.

And one of the hardest things were that they never spoke to us directly.

Never came.

No.

The last communication was, hey, I'm so happy.

I'm so proud.

Thank you so much.

That was the last communication, like, one and a half years ago, right?

Yeah.

I reached my results, and I'm about to graduate.

And nothing wrong until this very moment.

They decided to go public because of whatever reason that we actually still don't know fully, and it doesn't really matter, and it's not about these people.

But what happened to us was that I started to question my own identity.

For me, it was really hard because they described me in a way that I would never describe myself.

They described my partner, the person that I'm about to marry, in a way that I would never recognize my partner as.

So when it comes to me looking at you, I didn't have a problem.

I know who you are.

But when it came to me looking at myself, I had a lot to figure out, and I have had a lot to navigate.

And emotionally, of course, it struck me.

And the reason why it struck me was because these are people that I still care about, and these are people who I've been caring about helping reach a major outcome.

So for me, that was the.

The hardest thing to kind of get my head around.

And to this day, I still wish them the best, like, all the best that they can get.

I wish them nothing.

Nothing but great stuff.

But as not a client anymore, I don't have that place where I can make that impact anymore.

But I did the best that I could, and I think you and I did a really, really good job navigating that.

And then throughout the course of our business, the more we grew, the more we realized that we need to make sure that we can live up to our promises.

Our promises has always been, when you come to us, you're going to make money if you're serious about being a coach.

So we needed to protect that, because no one starts out at the top of the hill feeling like I've achieved everything.

And that climb and that journey needs to be taken care of.

And in order for that to happen, we need to look at our core promise first.

We need to make sure.

That people are doing well in business.

And when they're doing well in business, then they can start helping other and giving advice.

Then they can start gathering communities.

But if our program would turn into something that is more about the family sensation, what's going to happen to some people is that people are going to get less progress and that's going to hurt them in the long run.

So we had to take a stand for what is most important for our clients.

It's to make sure that they focus on.

We're business coaches.

Yeah, we're business coaches.

We're not businesses make money.

Yeah, we're not life coaches.

And that might have been a mistake, but we were very personal and with some clients still because we care.

But in the beginning, I remember that it was so many people that I talked to about their marriages and that might be a rookie mistake on my part back then.

This was three years ago, four years ago, in the beginning of like this journey.

But I just cared.

So I want to help them.

Talking about their marriage because they started asking you questions because they were struggling.

Yeah, I'm figuring this out.

This is something I have a problem with.

And I asked them to share and they shared and I gave them, like a response.

It wasn't that I coached them, but I listened to all of it.

And I don't regret that.

What I know today is that I know where to be very clear about this.

This is what I can help with and this is something I can't help with, but for the sake of the humanity.

But it is hard because we're human beings, all of us.

And as coaches, I believe we are natural people who want to help people and we care.

I mean, this.

The amount of time we spent with our clients.

One of these persons that went to the newspaper, I had a call with her on a Thursday night when she was crying and she was out of it herself.

And she was just like, can you help me?

And I jumped on a call on a Thursday night.

We were.

I know it wasn't included in the program that we stand up on a night whenever they need us, but we got to that place where we wanted to be there for them.

You know what I think was the hardest part?

I think the hardest part was when we got the questions from the journalists.

There was no doubt.

It was so colored what was the story was going to write.

And you can either be a part of the story, I'm going to write it without you.

I already have what I know what I want.

But for the sake of journalism, let's give you a voice.

Yeah.

Questions like, so the way you get clients, do you think you are manipulating.

Don't you think.

Think that it is a bad idea to sell coaching to people who I need?

Yeah.

And it was questions like that.

And like, the happy news is that they never wrote anything about ethics.

They never wrote anything about.

They might have mentioned something about.

So.

Because what.

What really mattered to me was he's a journalist.

He's not a business owner.

That's very clear.

Because as a business owner, you need to sell.

We have done a lot of podcasts about selling, and if you want to sell, you need to get clients.

So him asking, don't you think it's unethical to sell to someone who's in a bad place?

And I'm just thinking, well, what is it doctors do?

What is it nurses do?

What is it coaches do?

They help people who has a problem depending on, like, what kind of coaches they are.

It's in all niches, like life coaches.

You go to a life coach because you have something that is not working, or you need some clarity.

You need that.

So for me, it sounds like sales is a bad thing, because that was the story.

Sales is a bad thing.

I got really concerned because these people, I knew that they gone from making zero to making more than 150,000 years in the business inside our program.

And if that is the story that selling is a bad thing, you cannot have a good business if you have that belief, because you will never be able to sell.

Yeah.

And so you will be struggling to be very clear.

We do not believe that at all.

No, we don't.

Absolutely not.

And you can sell stuff in a poor way.

Yeah, absolutely.

And we see it across all industries that people are selling stuff and scamming people.

And, you know, yes, it exists, but when it comes to sales, it's all about building a relationship.

It's all about building a connection.

And if we haven't been clear about that throughout our different episodes, then I don't know what to say.

I wouldn't even say it's something else.

Yeah.

One thing is the relationship.

But understanding a person, what that person needs, and give them an opportunity to make a decision.

Do they want it or do they not want it?

Yeah.

You should not.

You cannot convince.

And knowing how we work, every one of these people had gone through a process where they always chose to, hey, I want to do the next thing.

We work with them for free.

And they made a decision and they wanted to go.

Go on what Hurt me The most, I believe, is that.

Okay, is that the story that media is writing out there?

Is that the story that other coaches are sharing out there, sales is being manipulative, and this is it.

And I know they even took out, like, small, small things from our program out of context.

That looks really bad out of context.

Of course.

Yeah.

And also they overstepped because it's.

It's all out of.

But we can't do anything about that.

And we might be able to, but we're not going to because it doesn't make sense.

But of course, when you take stuff out of context, then it becomes weird.

Then you can create whatever narrative you want.

Absolutely.

No.

So what I wanted to say was with that, what really hurt me is that the story we are bringing.

What will happen to everyone else around listening to your story about selling is bad.

Selling help to people who are vulnerable.

Then you're being manipulated or you're being a bad person.

I thought that was horrible to say because.

Because we know we help a lot of new coaches who are still uncertain and absolutely do fear sales, and they're so afraid of being judged.

When this happened, well, we went out to our clients saying, hey, this is coming out.

I just want you to know what has happened.

We told all our clients and we also asked them, hey, please do ask us questions.

If you have any questions about anything that's being written about us, ask us.

And of course, there will be people who are following along.

But we got so much love those days.

And to me, yeah, that helps.

It helps so much.

Because the thing is, the critics, the haters, they went around in all Facebook group to.

To share this story.

Like, look at this person.

And.

And again, competitors and people we never spoke to, never don't know who are for.

For a week, it's important to say that this.

Like, for a week, they did, but.

They started spreading this.

So the critics, the haters are very loud.

But what happened was that everyone who was in the program the same time of these people, they were just like, what.

What just happened?

I was here.

I saw what happened.

And that was people who've been with us since these people left that knew these people.

Yeah, they're still in the program, and they've been more in the program at the same time of these people.

And see, the thing is, those people who support you, those people who love you, they're not never going to be as loud as everyone else because they don't want to, like, have people jumping on them because the negativity will always win in the world of social media and, like, click.

So they didn't.

But we got all the love in our inbox and old clients who are not even with us anymore, Hey, I just saw this thing.

I just want to know that I really love you and support you.

I'm so grateful.

I'm so thankful for everything you've done.

And I know who you are.

I know this is bullshit.

I know it's not about you, but.

Well, so they describe their story.

Let's describe this story.

I think that was beautiful.

Yeah.

But we had a client using completely different niche because she's working with relationships.

And she came and she said, you know what?

This thing happening right now, it scares me.

I'm so afraid that if I'm going out that people start saying, do this to me.

And I think that was a really hard part for both you and me because we did get scared.

We did start playing a little bit too small.

It's six months since this happened.

I think the first four months, we started playing small because we were just like, I don't want to have people coming in who are not ready to do this.

I don't want that.

So we started playing really small until we really grabbed ourselves and pulled ourselves up.

Yeah.

And also forced us to reevaluate what are the core things that helps people build a business.

And, like, of course it made our program better.

It restructured the way we deliver it.

I think that was the best question we got from this journalist because he asked us, is there anything that you can see now that you need to do better?

Did you learn anything?

I think both of us was.

Was thinking differently than what he was thinking.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because we were kind of like, yeah, of course.

Like, there are so many things that we can do better and that we can learn and that we've learned from.

From our experience.

That's what we always do for.

For us, that wasn't a question to.

To dodge in any way at all.

So this client said, I'm so afraid that this will happen to me.

And it was such a sad thing that we could see now our clients starting holding back because they started seeing things going on and they didn't want that to happen to them.

And what I.

Everyone here getting haters.

I believe it will happen when you grow.

But you as a human being, you as the business owner also grow in your role of being a business owner and being there.

We talk about topics that triggers people.

Sales, money, stuff like that.

It triggers a lot of people.

I don't believe relationships Triggers people in the same way.

No.

I have a hard time seeing that five relationships are going to come together and go against the relationship coach.

But it was scary to see that we got.

Clients got scared because they saw that.

And I think we had a day where we were just drinking our morning tea, was talking about this, and we were talking about, oh, my God, this is like the worst thing that can happen right now is actually that our clients are scared to go out and stand for what they stand for.

Yeah.

Public.

And be out there and in that area.

I also want to say that the thing that happened for you, that you shared in the beginning, where you had 20 clients, that is just unlikely.

But that wasn't anywhere close.

That was a small dispute that you could solve.

But it felt for you like a big deal.

It felt huge.

There is no reason to believe why that would happen to anyone else.

So that was just a very specific case.

And the other thing that I wanted to say is that the thing that happened here, we were making two and a half million euros that year.

So, I mean, we were on a kind of, like, bigger level.

And I also want to say that if you want to grow towards those kind of numbers, I applaud you.

And I say that it's amazing.

And I want to say that don't be afraid of it, because the most important thing.

I know me and Sunny have spoken about this so many times.

The most important thing for us is that we are not making an impact where coaches are being scared, because they know who we are, they know what we stand for, or they feel that they know the foundation that we come from.

And then they don't dare to follow their own dreams because they're scared of something similar happen to them.

It might happen, but it might happen when you make a couple of millions a year, not before.

I think it's impossible not to start censor yourself getting through this kind of journey.

But it's about, like, how long time, how long time will you make it affect yourself?

Like, how long time will you spend playing small, censoring yourself and not stand for what you stand for, because you get afraid of it happening again?

I believe that it took us kind of a long time because I believe in my world that for five months was a long time before we really could let go of it and just own it.

But, yeah, I think it's important to really say you.

You grow with it and it's natural that you start playing small.

And that is not the way moving forward, because we're not good coaches.

For our clients, when we play small, when we are hesitant, and when we are holding back.

Holding back, we are not the best coaches.

And I would rather go ahead of our clients.

I would rather take the hit and.

Learn what we need to learn so that we can help our clients not have to go through the same things.

So for you who are getting through some haters, some criticism and all of that, I think the best advice to give if you are in that position or if you come to that position, which we kind of hope you do, because it probably just is because you're making an impact.

Someone sees you, they listen to you, they see you out there.

So, like, having haters, if we just reframe what is this that is happening.

Having haters, meaning, equals that you're doing something right.

You are visible, making an impact.

Yeah.

Because let's face it, people do not talk about people who doesn't matter.

And I really want you to know you are not responsible for anyone else's emotional reaction to your success.

And what you do might be the most important thing said during this.

Because you're responsible for what you give away.

Yeah.

And you can only do that with the best of your capability coming from a pure intention.

Other than that, we can only do as well as we can.

And people always think stuff, it's fine.

And I take a stand for coaches and like you said, I don't wish anyone to get through a shitstorm or to get anyone having a conflict of any sort, but I wish everyone to get the experience that it gives.

So I don't want the bad things happening, but I want you to get all the experience because it makes a huge difference and everything that you have to go through makes you better.

Everything.

It's just important not to forget that and to be very, very clear while we wrap this up.

The reason why we do this is that we want to give away for coaches so that they don't need to be scared about it.

We also want to make sure that we are not censoring ourselves or holding ourselves back.

And one way of dealing with that is just sharing where we come from and sharing from our experience.

And we're always, we're always going to take a stand for coaches.

We're always going to make sure that we are.

Are doing everything that that's in our power to help coaches and make coaches, businesses do better and feel better.

That's also why our clients get.

Gets results.

A good question to ask yourself when, when you have this happening is, is there anything I can learn from this situation, always ask yourself, did I do wrong?

Is there something I need to change?

And sometimes, yeah, of course I can do stuff differently.

I need to have a better process.

I need to do something else.

But you also do not want to take the responsibility away from your clients.

Your clients are responsible for their emotions and how they react on their emotions.

Yeah.

You're only responsible for what you do and how you handle it.

Yeah.

You can be responsible towards your clients, but you cannot be responsible for your clients.

Very good.

Very good.

Yeah.

Let's wrap this up.

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