The Real Reason You’re Not Making Money Online (And What Actually Works)
Most entrepreneurs aren’t failing because they’re not working hard enough.
They’re stuck because they’ve been taught to chase clients… instead of becoming someone clients can actually find.
In this conversation with John Prather, we break down the shift that changes everything:
from hustle to systems
from chasing to attraction
from scattered effort to consistent income
You’ll hear how John went from athlete to building multiple income streams, what most people get wrong about network marketing, and why your content matters more than your offer.
We also get into:
• Why serving people changes your income
• The mistake that keeps people stuck in the “valley of despair”
• How to create content that actually brings clients in
• The difference between selling a product and becoming the person people buy from
If things feel harder than they should… this will connect some dots.
👉 Connect with John & Download the Plug & Profit Guide:
Want premium clients from your content?
Grab a free Client Acquisition Audit and I’ll show you exactly where your message, offer, and CTA are leaking conversions—and the 3 fixes to turn your podcast/Substack into a client pipeline.
👉 Book here: https://coachsalchemist.com
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Transcript
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: What if the reason you're stuck financially isn't because you're not working hard enough, but because everything you've been told about making money online is backwards?
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Because the people actually creating consistent income right now are hustling more. They've built something most people completely overlook. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Hi, and welcome to the You World Order Showcase Podcast, where we feature life-health transformational coaches and spiritual entrepreneurs stepping up to be the change they seek in the world. I'm your host, Jill Hart, the Coach's alchemist, on a mission to empower coaches and entrepreneurs to amplify their
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: voice, monetize their mission, and get visible. If you're ready to start attracting premium clients without chasing algorithms or hunting people down like a banshee on a mission, head over to Coachesalchemist.com and schedule your free client acquisition audit. It's the first step to building a business where your clients seek you out, rather than you having to hunt them down. Today, we are chatting with John Prather. John is a former professional football player turned
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: entrepreneur, coach, and speaker. After transitioning out of athletics, he built multiple remote income streams, earning over $300,000 by 25,
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: and reaching a million net worth by the age of 30. Today, he helps individuals and families create scalable, system-driven income while improving their health, faith, and overall quality of life without burnout or constant hustle.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Welcome to the show, John. It's great to have you with us.
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::John Prather: Yes, thank you so much, excited to be here.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So, let me ask you the big question. What's the most significant thing, in your opinion, as individuals, we can do to make an impact on how the world is going?
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::John Prather: Yeah, that's a great question. I would say…
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::John Prather: The first thing that comes to mind, honestly, is entrepreneurship. And I feel like, from my story, having started as a college football player to transitioning to pro, around that time was when I got introduced to entrepreneurship through network marketing, as we were just talking about. And I think for me, what I realized is when people go through the journey of becoming an entrepreneur and being successful, they realize that it's more about helping other people rather than helping themselves.
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::John Prather: And I think if more people took on that mindset of.
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::John Prather: being more service-focused rather than self-focused, it would drastically impact the world. And I think entrepreneurship, whether it's, you know, network marketing, business coaching, you know, selling products, whatever it might be, gets the individual to kind of
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::John Prather: see how they can help the marketplace out, which I think makes the world a better place when everybody's looking to serve others, rather than just serving themselves.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yes, and it sounds so simple when you say it, but most people, when they start out, all they want to do is make money.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah.
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::John Prather: Very true.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: They could make it from their couch doing nothing, Even better!
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::John Prather: Absolutely. Yep.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It used to be the joke that went around when I was doing MLM back in the day, and it's like, make money from your house does not mean from your couch.
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::John Prather: Yes, exactly.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So, you're talking about, serving other people. And…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And when you serve other people, Which is…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: that's really the crux of business in its entirety, is serving other people. You have something that you can offer them that will help them solve a problem that they've got.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Most people, when they get into network marketing, especially, it's because it's got such a low barrier for entry.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And… and…
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::John Prather: Yep.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: people, they're just like, well, I can just go out and sell this to all my friends and family, and you find out quickly that doesn't work. But what does work?
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::John Prather: Yep.
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::John Prather: Yeah, no, absolutely. I think you hit it right on the head. I think the…
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::John Prather: the pros of network marketing, like you mentioned, is amazing. It's, you know, low barrier of entry, you can do it while you're still working or you're in college. It gives you the flexibility to start something of your own, with not much capital investment or much time investment, but the cons, like you said, is that what you don't pay for in money, you have to work for in your time effort, in putting in the work and getting the grind, and I think so many people, a lot of people in the network marketing MLM space.
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::John Prather: Sometimes misrepresent that, where they try to promote it as a get-rich-quick, you know, like you mentioned, or just making money from your phone or your computer, which to some extent is true, but with any business, there's hustle involved, so…
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::John Prather: For most people, I think where they get it wrong is the aspect of, just like I was talking about, they're so into the money aspect, and I definitely fell into this. My first reason for getting started in business was definitely money, getting out of debt, paying off, you know, student loans, starting to make a little bit of extra cash. You know, I was just looking for 500 bucks a month.
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::John Prather: But I soon realized that in order to be successful in this or any business, it took a focus on other people. And when I started to change my framework of how can I make money for myself versus how can I serve other people, find clients, help people that are looking to make some extra money.
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::John Prather: that really changed my perspective, and it allowed me to attract more people, because people can kind of smell if you're just in it for yourself. If it's like, oh, if you join my team, I make all this money, and this, that, and the third, but if you're truly into it for their reasons, whether it be for them to pay off their debt, or for them to, you know, start learning how to be an entrepreneur, or whatever it might be for them.
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::John Prather: people are very attracted to having people that assist them towards their goals, rather than kind of putting them in a box. I think that's why most people are looking for secondary income streams, because jobs do that. They just put you in a box and say, hey, this is all we need from you. If you want to do something more, great, but…
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::John Prather: we don't really need that right now, versus as a business owner, you can kind of do what you want. So, I think for most people in, you know, business coaching, network marketing, if you learn how to help your client achieve their goals, rather than trying to put them into your frame of reference and helping them your way, you'll get so much better results, down the road.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I like to talk to people about the burning problem you solve.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: That's tangible and measurable.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And everybody has something that they offer to people that will get them a result that is the answer to their burning problem. I don't care what you're selling.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: There's got to be that burning problem that you're…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: your offer solves for them. And the more dire that problem is for them, the more they're going to take action quickly, and they're going to pay more for it.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: They're more willing to invest if… and they have to have confidence that you're going to solve that problem for them in a very short amount of time, with the least friction on their part.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So…
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::John Prather: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. Definitely agree with that.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: we talked a little bit about creating content and getting content out there. How would you say people should
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Look at creating content in order to
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Make sales and to attract clients.
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::John Prather: Yeah, I would say, one of my frameworks that I use with business coaching clients that I work with, who are small entrepreneurs looking to scale, and develop more clients and more revenue, is a content-to-cash flow model. And what I teach them primarily is, number one, it's kind of like a three-step process, where number one, you have to get consistent about making content. I typically teach people, start with short form, because one, it takes less effort.
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::John Prather: and, you know, you can do more with it, and that's what most people… most people are scrolling on reels. There are a lot of people on YouTube watching long form, but people are scrolling on Reels, and you can get more reach in a shorter period of time. Then, step number two, once somebody becomes consistent, because that's, I think, the biggest hurdle with any business, is just getting out there, putting yourself out there. So once you get consistent with it, then step number two is starting to strategize, because we were talking about this just before the call.
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::John Prather: or just for the podcast is, I feel like most entrepreneurs, they're trying to find people to sell to, but in reality, they should become more findable to the people that already want to buy what they have to sell.
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::John Prather: And that's where content, I think, comes in perfectly, whether it's network marketing, people wanting to make a little bit of extra income, start selling some products, there's a lot of people out there. But if they don't know you, why would they join your team? You know, you might be an accountant, you know, running a side business, you know, doing taxes and things like that. You know, people need accountants, but if they can't find you when they need… when it comes tax time, what's the point? You know, they can't utilize your services, so…
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::John Prather: I feel like starting to create content, step number two, like I said, is that strategize. What is your ideal client looking for? What's gonna attract their attention? You know.
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::John Prather: typically, when it comes to strategy, you should be serving the audience the most, you know, so you should be giving them value, rather than just promoting your offer, or, hey, click the link in my bio. It's, hey, what are the three steps that are holding most professionals back when it comes to pursuing their, you know, goals outside of their job? Something like that, where you're kind of…
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::John Prather: pulling to that need or that desire that you talked about. And then I feel like step number three is learning how to automate that. You know, so you start creating the content, get consistent with it. Step number two is you start to strategize. Who's your ideal client? How can you reach them more effectively? And then step number three, once you get into that rhythm, how can I automate and delegate as much as possible? Because eventually, the goal is to have so many clients that, you know, you might not have the time to do all the editing and the shooting and all
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::John Prather: of that. So, if you have somebody, maybe it's a VA, or maybe it's, you know, a team that can do that for you.
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::John Prather: it gives you more time to still create the content, but you can now focus on your area of expertise, which is actually growing your business, because I think that, again, each one of those steps, I feel like you kind of hit another roadblock, where it's like, first.
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::John Prather: do I even want to post content? You know, the whole hassle, but then it's like, once you start getting it out there, you know it's starting to work, then that whole idea of… and I'm sure you've kind of come across this, well, now I gotta edit it, you know, I don't even want to make the video, because now I gotta edit it, so learning how to kind of delegate a lot of that, for me, has been super helpful. So I think…
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::John Prather: Creating content is absolutely essential, especially in today's day and age, because again, people are looking, you know, they're on social media, and if you're not there, or you don't have at least any presence, it's going to be very difficult, because there's only so many people you're going to meet out and about, you know, you gotta eventually get in front of people on their phones, where they're actually paying attention.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I'm gonna share Substack with you again.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It's just, like, it's the perfect space for people who are trying to create content and get a foot in the door without having to spend, like.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: so much time trying to satisfy algorithms, or pay-to-play, which is most… most platforms, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all those platforms, eventually you're going to have to start putting money into it for advertising, and even…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: new people, it's not really user-friendly to people that are just starting out, whereas Substack is a space that…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: If you're new, great!
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You're welcome to come on in. There's no advertising on the platform, so there's none of the shadow banning that happens in a lot of these spaces, and you can talk about whatever you want to talk about, and you'll find that your people will
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: They'll find you, and you can practice with them, and it's just, like, it's such an amazing space for that sort of… of…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: budding entrepreneur, and, you know, a lot of people get into MLM, and it's, like, their 150th MLM that they're in, but I think a lot of people don't succeed at network marketing because they're… they're…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: They're confused about what the main point is, which is finding the audience that you want to serve.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And not trying to serve everybody.
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::John Prather: Very true, very true. And I would kind of add on to that point, too, is that, one of the things that I learned through a mentor of mine, Myron Golden, is he talks about in the Bible, it says, all work works. You know, so most people, especially when they start in network marketing, they think that if they go out, try to make a sale, try to network, try to recruit somebody into their team, and they
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::John Prather: they don't succeed, or the person doesn't join, or they don't buy the product, they think that, oh, I failed, or this didn't work, but in reality, what's happening is the work is either working on you.
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::John Prather: Or it's working for you. You know, so if it's working on you, you're becoming better, you're learning lessons. You know, if you don't make the sale, okay, you can reflect back, what did I say that I could have said differently? You know, how could I have had maybe some better information to share with this client? Or, hey, hey, maybe how could I have, you know, found that person's need a little bit better, rather than just trying to force my opportunity on them? Or again, insert any type of business model.
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::John Prather: But most people, what he says is most people don't allow the work to work on them enough to become the person for whom it can work. So eventually, you're going to get to the point to where results are coming naturally, where you can, you know, talk to somebody immediately, where you can find clients, you know, off the bat, or you have a social media following, but like you said, most people are jumping from company to company, or from business to business. Oh, I can do affiliate marketing, I can do dropshipping, I can…
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::John Prather: you know, do, you know, day trading or things like that, where they never, you know, develop an area of expertise. You know, they have a lot of surface-level information or surface-level knowledge, but they never get deep into anything, which, you know, again, to some extent, if that's you, you know, obviously, that might be something that you like to do, learn a lot of new things, but to create an impact, at least all successful entrepreneurs I know, they get really good at one industry, and then once they become successful.
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::John Prather: then they start to branch out with the money that they've made. So I would totally agree, is you gotta allow the process to work, and it goes the same for content. Most people, they do two weeks or so, they post a few shorts, and I'm not getting any traction, and it's just like, you know, you gotta allow the process to work, you know, because you're either, you know, you're either earning or you're learning. You know, that's kind of how I talk about it.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yes. There's… there's a lot of that…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It also, to me, seems like people get into network marketing, and they're like, they just want to sell to somebody.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Instead of coming up with a position.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Like, I know you sell Amway products.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yes. If somebody came along and
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Wanted to be part of your team, but they were really good at cleaning.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You know, that's a niche.
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::John Prather: Yeah?
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: then they're not talking about Amway products. What they're talking about is cleaning. How to get that toilet, you know, spic and span without having to spend every 15 minutes of your life whenever you go into the John cleaning it up. I mean, yeah, I use this product. It works great for me.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You can get it here if you want, but this is the technique.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So you're… you're focused on the technique, not the product. The product is the byproduct. And then people…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: people make sales. And then.
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::John Prather: Yeah.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Then they see that you're successful, and they may want to become part of your team, because they see that, hey.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: This person is really good at cleaning, and… but…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I'm… I'm really good at, you know.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: forget all the other products that Amway has, I just know that they have clean products. But say it's weight loss, you know, or health. You know, there are a lot of MLMs out there that are about that. There's a lot of them about, you know.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: mental health.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: mushrooms and stuff like that, or energy work. It just… it… there's… there's an MLM, there's a product for everyone to sell.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: But you need to figure out who you are, and who you want to talk to, and where your thing is.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Before you start getting into…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: selling your product, because then you… then you're just competing with everybody else who's trying to sell the product, instead of showing people,
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: A mechanism for making them want that product to get that result that you're showing them how to get.
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::John Prather: Yeah, no, absolutely, and I think one of the things that I've learned in my time in network marketing from a lot of my mentors is they've always said, you know, people don't join your company, they join you. You know, so if they like you, if they like the way that they connect with you, like, I can't tell you how many people I've sat down with, I mean, thousands, hundreds of people, you know, and there's many, many times where people have seen different types of MLMs, or even Amway, from other people, but because I connected with them, I was able to sit down
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::John Prather: I was able to have a conversation with them.
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::John Prather: they wanted to work with me rather than other people, even if they get a negative perception of it from other people, because of the fact that, you know, we identified that need, we sat down with them, we kind of had that connection, and were able to talk through certain things, and you kind of hit it right on the head. You know, it's not so much, again, I feel like a lot of people in the MLM space are very much about, like, oh, I got these great products, I have this great opportunity, and that is true. There's a lot of fantastic products and opportunities.
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::John Prather: opportunities, but…
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::John Prather: you know, you're the magic. You know, it's like, yeah, you have great, you know, but why wouldn't I buy it from somebody else? You know, it's like, it's because your connection, because you're the entrepreneur, and I think a lot of people use the company that they are partnering with
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::John Prather: kind of like as a crutch, for lack of a better term, when if they became that entrepreneur themselves, they can utilize that business as a partnership, and even expand and create other businesses, like coaching or, you know, other types of e-commerce websites, and I think that's a much better strategy to go about it, because it also teaches you how to be a true entrepreneur, rather than just kind of like, oh, I'm… you know, because in the first instance, you're kind of just like a sales rep. It's just like, I have these products, and I'm
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::John Prather: just, you know, trying to promote it to people, rather than, you know, I own a business, these are one of the lines that I promote, but I also do other things, and I'm trying to find the right need for the right person. I'm not just, you know, trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, you know, is kind of the analogy I think makes sense.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Exactly. And I could give you an example on a much larger scale.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Which may be very controversial.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: But the medical industry is the biggest MLM ever.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: In that…
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::John Prather: Yep.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Pharmaceutical companies sponsor doctors becoming doctors. They are the ones behind the medical schools. And doctors' main job is to prescribe their pharmaceuticals to patients.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: But they don't come out and say, hey, come on in and get your local dose of pharmaceutical things.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: They say, hey, come on.
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::John Prather: Mask it.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: they mask it. They show you, like.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: come on in for your wellness check, and we'll find something wrong with you so I can give you some medicine. Yeah.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: No.
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::John Prather: You hit it right on the head.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: it's… it's… it's a model, and, you know, I personally have some problems with that model, but…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Overall, if you look at it, it's a successful model. And if you take it into whatever industry you're in, whether it's network marketing, or you're selling coaching, or you're…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Selling food in a restaurant. I mean, if they all come back to, you have…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: People who have a need, and you… you personally have a skill.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: or a gift, I like to consider everyone has a gift that they're here to share with the world. And if you stay in that gifting.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It makes everything else so simple.
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::John Prather: Very true. Very true. Yeah, your gift will make room for you, for sure.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah, and it'll attract the right people to you, because you don't want to work with everybody.
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::John Prather: Very true.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I'm sure you have stories, too, but there's… there are people that may have come into your periphery, and they're just, like, they're more trouble than they're worth.
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::John Prather: Yeah, no, it's absolutely… whether it's network marketing or business coaching, the saying I always go with is, I'd rather run with one than drag a hundred, you know, so it's like, if you find the right person, you have the right funnel, you have the right qualifications, so that way, again, it's not that there's any good or bad people, but it's just like, do they align with your vision? Are they on the same path? Is the season that they're in ready to go for a business? Because, again, there's a lot of people, you know, again, just sitting down, I mean, everybody says they want to make more money, or…
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::John Prather: have some income coming in on the side, but are they willing to put in a little bit of extra effort? Are they willing to, you know, humble themselves to learn a new skill set? You know, those are the things where it's like.
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::John Prather: that's the qualification, and like you said, you'd rather have somebody who's ready to go, or at least willing to learn, rather than just like, you know, nope, you know, I want to do it my way or the highway. And it's like, you know, I mean, to some extent, cool, but it's going to be very difficult to work with somebody like that, you know, in any industry.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So, how do you balance building wealth with maintaining your health, faith, and time freedom without burning out?
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::John Prather: That's a really great question. I think for me is… again, it always comes down, I think, to priorities. I feel like, for me,
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::John Prather: a lot of people like to say time management, but I feel like time management isn't the right term, because time comes and goes. You can't really control it. But you can control your priorities, you know, so it's a matter of what are you focusing on for different time periods of the day? So for me, faith is a big portion of my day. So, you know, whether it's reading the Bible, or praying, or going to church, or whatever it might be, that's kind of a critical, you know, rock that I put into my jar that's always there on a daily basis, whether it's
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::John Prather: you know, working my 9-to-5 as an engineer. You know, that's obviously a certain time period block that I need to put in. You know, when it comes to running my business or coaching other clients, you know, those are other blocks that I put in. And then for me, what I do is I like to put those other aspects around it. So, you know, health, you know, faith, you know.
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::John Prather: you know, wealth creation and all that stuff. It's all about, you know.
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::John Prather: having the right priorities, because also raising a young family, you know, those are things that you have to be willing to give and take. And I feel like, for me, one of the things that I always recommend certain clients is you want to set up your life in a way where you have a little bit of flexibility. I feel like when I was younger, you know, I kind of lived on the edge, you know, for lack of a better term, where it's like every minute of the day was accounted for. If anything ran over or ran late or anything like that, it's like.
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::John Prather: now the whole day is messed up, you know, this bumps this out, this does this, and I realize that you kind of have to give yourself a little bit of slack. You know, same with your finances. If you're living literally paycheck to paycheck, you gotta figure out a way to where you can, you know, either, one, increase your income through some other source of income, or number two, cut down on your expenses, so that way you have a little bit of a leeway. Because when it comes to finances, a really good example is you might have an opportunity presented to you, whether it's an investment or a business.
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::John Prather: opportunity, if you have no extra income to put towards it, you might miss out on a great opportunity just because you weren't prepared for it. You didn't have your priorities in alignment leading up to that.
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::John Prather: to where you're able to take advantage of it. So that's kind of how I look at it, is…
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::John Prather: making sure that you have the right priorities, and then also giving yourself, I guess, quote-unquote, slack in your life, to change directions, you know, to have different thoughts, to be able to think through things, because I think another thing, kind of along with faith, reflection, is kind of thinking through, like, you know, how has the last week been? How has the last month or two, the last quarter been when it comes to your business, or your finances, or your health? You know, and kind of…
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::John Prather: being able to have that real audit with yourself, I guess, for lack of a better term, that can kind of identify, okay, these are the areas I'm doing well in. These are the areas that, you know, I might be slipping a little bit in. And then lastly, I would say, is having some sort of a coach or a mentor in one of those areas that you're looking to grow, who can give you that guidance. Because again, when it came to making money or finance or business building, I had never done that before when I first got started, so…
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::John Prather: to try to be my own mentor would have been wrong, because I wouldn't know what to do. So having somebody that can kind of look at it from a third-party perspective might be able to help somebody, you know, better grow. But I think it's really about your priorities, and making sure that you're real about them, because again, like we talked about, a lot of people say, hey, I want to make extra money, I want to start my own business.
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::John Prather: then you look at where they spend their time and their money, and you're like, do you really want to do that? You know, so that's kind of an internal thing I think people have to look at and say, how serious am I about this? Is this more of a hobby, or do I really want to
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::John Prather: you know, go after being a six-figure entrepreneur, or something like that, because it takes work, you know, but once you do it, luckily with business, a lot of it is residual, in some sense, never… it's never completely passive.
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::John Prather: But once you build it, it's much easier to maintain and grow it, rather than starting from scratch. You know, so people have to kind of get real with themselves of, do I want to go through that grind to build up that foundation? Because if you are willing to, you have an exciting future ahead of you, but if you're not, it's kind of like.
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::John Prather: You're gonna be torturing yourself for years and years and years, because you're just, like you said, starting and stopping, doing this, and then trying this, and then you never get…
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::John Prather: Over the hump, I would say.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: A lot of times, entrepreneurs will get going.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And things will be going really well, and then they'll… they'll hit that…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: down… downturn? Every business, it has it. It's just like, there's all this excitement which carries you and carries you, and then the grind happens, and instead of just, you know.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: working through the grind, and in the beginning, counting the cost. The Bible says, count the cost before you decide… make a decision. And then when you make that decision, understand that it's… it's gonna be really sunshine and rainbows for a while, but there's going to be
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: That pit that you're gonna go through, everybody goes through it. Keep going!
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Don't switch streams and try to find that next thing to get that jolt. Everything works, as you say. All business works if you work it.
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::John Prather: Yeah, absolutely, and I think it kind of reminded me of, like, that four steps of, you know, uninformed optimism. Like, when you first get started, you're super excited, you know, everything's going well, it's a new venture, then you kind of get into that sort of informed pessimism, where it's kind of, like you said, you kind of go over the hump, and now you're going down the backside of the hill, and you're like, wow, I… this… I thought it was going to be easy, I thought I was going to make $10,000 a month, you know, within the first
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::John Prather: you know, 90 days, and you know, I haven't. I've been putting more money in than I've been getting out. And then, like you said, where most people quit is that valley of despair, you know, where it's like, they get to that point to where it's like, you know, they're at a crossroads. I either have to commit to getting better and putting in the time, effort, and energy to be successful, or I have to make a move and switch. And I will say, for some people, like you said, sometimes a switch is realistic, you know, because it's just like, this just isn't for them.
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::John Prather: But, I feel like the vast majority quit just because it's quote-unquote too hard. When it's like, if you just push through.
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::John Prather: the last step is informed optimism. When you've achieved your success, you're coming up, you know, the other side of the mountain, where it's like, now I'm starting to achieve some of my goals. I'm hitting those, you know, four or five-figure months that I was looking for, but again, most people, they go through the first three stages, and then quit and start over. They go through the first three stages, quit and start over, and it's like, their life is just constantly, you know, informed… or uninformed optimism, informed pessimism, valley of despair, start something
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::John Prather: new, and it's just that constant rotation, versus if you just push through, and figure it out. And I think, like you said, counting the cost is extremely important, and just looking back at my life as well.
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::John Prather: I'm glad that I had this. I think it must have just come from my parents, because, you know, I learned a lot of my faith after being in business, but I think back that I very much so counted the cost before I did something, and I feel like just looking at whether it be football, professional sports, college, my career.
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::John Prather: I always, like, thought through a decision, and once I made it.
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::John Prather: I didn't want to get swayed from it, and I feel like a lot of people are very shiny object syndrome, where it's like, they don't really put the thought in, they don't count the cost beforehand. Like, would this… you know, I always tell people when I'm sitting down with them, teaching them about network marketing is, you know, write down 5 things that your current career
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::John Prather: goals that you have that your current career can't give you, that another opportunity might be able to give you. Because that'll give you the essence of, like.
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::John Prather: what is my why? Would this actually help? And if you do the exercise, it's either gonna show you, hey, I have a lot of goals that I need to achieve, and this might not be the path, you know, my job, I need to do something different. Or it's like, my job is giving me all that I want, you know, and then it helps you not waste a whole bunch of time, you know, because if your job is your end goal, hey, be successful in that. Like, be a, you know, what they say, an intrapreneur. Be successful inside of your company.
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::John Prather: and just make a lot of money that way, rather than trying to do 7 streams of income like everybody, and then you end up, you know, burning yourself out, not making any money, and you lose your job because you're not putting effort towards it. You know, so it's like, like you said, counting the cost, I feel like, is extremely important. So that way you know what to go after. And once you've counted the cost, like you said, finish. You know, if you made that decision, this is for me, this is beneficial, as long as I go through it, I'm gonna like the end result.
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::John Prather: then don't quit, you know, because then you know, hey, it's just a matter of time until I succeed, but I feel like so many people are just…
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::John Prather: Mindlessly wandering into opportunities where it's like, they don't even know if it's what they want, and, you know, then they just kind of, you know, go from one to one to one, and, you know, they never actually succeed.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: What would you say is the… the biggest…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Piece of advice you could give people who are starting out in
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And on the entrepreneur journey, they've done the…
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: They've done the counting the cost.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: They know that they're gonna go up and down and hit that valley of despair.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: To get them through the valley of despair, what's your one piece of advice?
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::John Prather: I would say there's two things that I would recommend. One is probably what you're probably already thinking. Two is something that people might not know, but the first thing I would say is definitely finding a business coach or a mentor. You know, finding
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::John Prather: business coach mentor slash a community of people who can help you through that. Because again, if you go through it alone, it's much more difficult, it's harder, and again, if you've never been there before, expecting to be your own mentor teaching yourself, that's just not wise. You know, I think it also says in the Bible, like, you know, a fool is his own mentor, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but, you know, so finding a coach who's
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::John Prather: further ahead than you. Maybe they're not at the level you want to be, or maybe they are, but they're further down the road, they've been through that valley, and they can coach you through it. They can give you some guidance of, like, hey, here's how you walk through the minefield. You know, this is where the mine is, step this way, step that way. So that's the first thing I would say, is find somebody who's successful, who's willing to coach you. Again, network marketing just in general gives you that, but even in a lot of other industries, you can find mentors, whether it be on YouTube, or reading books, or actual physical mentors.
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::John Prather: The second thing I would say, though, is a little bit unique, and it's more of, like, a…
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::John Prather: Kind of like counting the cost, but more so…
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::John Prather: analyzing your current situations. Like, I feel like for me, when it comes to business, for example, a lot of people, because they're in it for money, sometimes their initial financial situation, they can't pursue something for a long period of time because it puts a financial strain on them. So I feel like
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::John Prather: developing a solid foundation for your life, whether it be, I'd say finances is a big one, so figuring out a way to… how can you sort of solidify your income, you know, or find a job that, you know, I call it like a business-building job. If you do decide that business is your route, you want to be successful in it, but you can't go full-time right away.
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::John Prather: Figure out how you can get… how you can lock in a business-building job. You know, steady hours, consistent pay, it gives you the flexibility. If you can do it remote, I know a lot of people are looking for remote work, sometimes it's tough to find, but finding an industry where, you know, you have that flexibility to go and pursue what you want to do without neglecting your job. So that way, you give yourself the bandwidth, you know, because if you're doing something, and it's like you're…
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::John Prather: getting fired from jobs every 6 months or so, you're, like, trying to put out a fire, and build your business, and put out a fire, you know what I mean? It's just, like, it takes so much mental bandwidth.
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::John Prather: So I would say trying to, I guess, number two, a good way to phrase it is, you know, solidify your foundation. You know, financially, you know, relationally, you know, if you're in toxic relationships, you know, either cut them off or, you know, kind of mellow them out, because you're going to need a certain amount of bandwidth to go after your dreams. If you have stuff at home that's kind of pulling you back, it's super tough. So those would be the two. You know, one, very obviously find a mentor, but two.
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::John Prather: kind of solidify that foundation, and that might mean, hey, I gotta push out this opportunity by three to six months so that I can find that business-building job, so that I can, you know, settle some of these relationships. Like, that might be what it means, for some, but others, it might just say, I can start right away. You know, I already have a lot of that, so I think that's really important for people, because, you know, again, when you hit that valley of despair.
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::John Prather: You're gonna need a lot of…
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::John Prather: focus on that valley to get out of it, and if you don't give yourself that focus, you're just not gonna make it. You're gonna fall victim to that valley like most people.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yep, it gets people all the time.
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::John Prather: Absolutely.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So earlier you mentioned that most people have it backwards when it comes to making money. What is the one shift or system they need to understand to finally create consistent income?
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::John Prather: Yeah, I think one of the points that I touched on earlier, it's most people who are business owners or looking to start a business, they're trying to find people to sell to, or trying to find what they can sell to other people, when in reality, like we talked about, you need to become more findable to the people that want to buy what you already have to sell. You know, like you mentioned, whether it's network marketing, business coaching, accounting, you know, a mechanic.
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::John Prather: there is a, you know, thousands, tens of thousands, potentially millions of people that already want to buy whatever product or service that you offer or are about to offer. So, for you, it's not about finding the market, unless you have a very weird niche offer, but for most people, they're not starting in that type of an industry.
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::John Prather: if you're becoming more findable, that comes to creating content, utilizing social media to its potential, whether it's, like you mentioned, Substack, whether it's Instagram, TikTok, social media, whatever it might be, start creating that content so that people can find you, you know, because there's a bunch of people, I'm sure everybody that's watching this has a, you know.
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::John Prather: when I reach this, I'm gonna buy this list. You know, it's like, when I say $5,000, this is the, you know, I'm gonna buy this suit, or buy this car, or whatever it might be. You know, so when you think about it.
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::John Prather: the products that you're potentially gonna sell are probably on people's, when I have this, I'm gonna buy this list. So if you're findable, if people can search you up on Google, see a video on YouTube or something like that, and say, hey, this is where, you know, when I get the money, I'm gonna buy this product from, you know, XYZ,
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::John Prather: That's, I think, a more useful, you know, use of your time. So rather than just trying to find people to sell to, become more findable.
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::John Prather: start creating content, start getting out there. That's gonna be the shift that I feel like for most people.
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::John Prather: gets them the results that they're looking for, rather than just trying to find the next shiny object that, oh, I think this can be big, this can be big, it's… it's not really that, it's more of you. If you become the person people want to buy from, you can sell anything that you want, you know?
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So true, so true. So how do people find you?
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::John Prather: Yeah, I would say for people that are interested in working with me, like we mentioned, my plug-in profit guide is a great way to reach out if you're looking for a way to
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::John Prather: start utilizing AI, starting your own online business from scratch. I'm currently bringing on 10 more people for the rest of 2026 that I'm gonna help scale up their first online business to, you know, 4 to 5 figures per month. So that's a great way. You can definitely get the Plugin Profit Guide. It's a two-page PDF that kind of walks you through the initial steps, and then we can sit down and kind of have a strategy session on how we can work with you.
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::John Prather: If not that, you can definitely go to my website at johnprather1.com, or find me on all social media platforms at John Prather underscore 1. I would love to serve you, you know, connect with you, and see where we can go.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Wonderful. And it's the number one.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: John Fraither, thenumber1.com.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: John, thank you so much for joining me today. Tearing your wisdom, this has been fantastic.
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::John Prather: Yeah, thank you for having me.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You can learn more about John and find the plugin Profit Guide by visiting johnpretherthenumber1.com, and I'll be sure to put that link in the description below. Thank you for joining us today. If you're ready to amplify your voice, monetize your mission, and get visible, your first step, or your next step, is simple.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Head on over to thecoachesalchemist.com and schedule your free client acquisition audit.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Join us for our next episode as we share what others are doing to raise the global frequency, and remember, change begins with you. You have all the power to change the world. Start today, and get visible.
