Full post below!
But just a very quick heads-up first.

If you want to step into easy, no-tech required, selling of whatever it is you sell as an independent or small business?
I brought back my offer
Specify. Sell. Repeat.
in the “My site is down” hacked version!
->
https://declubyoga.com/2023/11/14/specify-sell-repeat-in-particular-when-your-tech-goes-down-your-industry-collapses-and-you-just-lost-money/

“Specify. Sell. Repeat.
In particular when your tech goes down, your industry collapses, and you just lost money.”

This offer would originally expire 30 November 2023;
but I am extending it, to December 11, the one day anniversary of this website!

 

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Lessons from losing access to my website

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The past 2.5 weeks, I lost access to this website.
Five days ago, I regained access to my Posts, allowing me to blog again.
And today the site was released in full, including a reinstalled url.

The 2.5 weeks seemed like an eternity, and involved many emails, frustration and a whole lot of administrative unfairness I am not going to bother you with or even touch upon, in particular because I did learn some valuable lessons along the way!
You could say it was 2.5 week well-spent.

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Opening with a disclaimer!

The disclaimer is that although half of the issues were caused because I am using wordpress.com as the host of this website, I still highly recommend using them.
In particular if, like me, you are tech-illiterate, and resent having to update your website and deal with problems yourself.

I have had wordpress.com hosted websites for over ten years and they have been a fraction of the costs and headaches that ONE “independently” hosted website has been giving me, since 2010.

In other words, these lessons are in no way designed to keep you from starting your (business) website hosted by wordpress.com.
Even after this 2.5 week long hiccup, I still believe wordpress.com to be the best and even highly satisfactory option for anyone who wants all the tech taken care of;
And just wants the whole thing up, and Go!

So having that out of the way, here are
Lessons from losing access to my website.

Lesson 1 and 2 are for users of WordPress.com.
Lesson 3 is for people who use PayPal, and
Lesson 4 is for anyone who has a business, or who is considering opening their own business.
Including a closing story about one of the best sales people of our times, interesting to almost anybody but particular if you are Dutch.

Feel free to scroll to Lesson 4, since that is obviously the most important one.

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lesson 1. (for wordpress.com users)
Check your autorenewals on WordPress.com and check them again.

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If WordPress is your website host, check your domain (1) and plan (2) renewals separately.

Your domain and hosting plan are managed on separate pages.

Losing access to my website all started with me being unaware that there was an automatic payment option On for my WordPress personal plan.

A WordPress Personal plan is a  $50+ upgrade, which you need if you want an advertisement-free website and if you want a particular domainname appointed to your website.
F.e. I have a website called dailybonjoviyoga.com (hosted at dailybonjoviyoga.wordpress.com) If I want the url to say “dailybonjoviLIVE.com” (not congruent with the underlying wordpress name) then I need a WordPress Personal Plan.

And “Automatic renewal On” means WordPress takes the money from your account one month prior to the due date.
The option turns on automatically after any purchase, even if it was Off prior to that.

I had manually turned Off automatic renewals but as it turned out, after an unexpected withdrawal from my PayPal, I had only done this (turn of auto-renewal) for the domain renewal of catacombenijmegen.com
Not for the renewal of my WordPress Personal Plan.

Which leads to lesson number one:
Check your domain and plan autorenewals separately.
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lesson 2. (for wordpress.com users)
WordPress’ bank account actually does belong to a company called “Automattic”

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I don’t know how often you have lost money to creditcard or bankaccount fraude, but I think most of us know a red flag when we see one.
And a company name that seems to be designed to be overlooked, is such a red flag.
For example: Automattic

In my case, the fact that they used the word WordPress in their description did not make me any milder.
AND I knew I had my autorenewals off, because I am very consistent with that.
Or so I thought (because I had only turned off the domain auto-renewal).

I immediately filed a complaint with PayPal that money was taken from my account by a company (“Automattic”) claiming to be WordPress.

I’m not saying to lower your standards or to stop responding to red flags, but from now on know that WordPress’ money is ACTUALLY collected by a company really called Automattic. 

And it is Automattic’s billing department which takes away access to your now paid-13-months-in-advance WordPress website, if you file a complaint with PayPal.

But the systemic problems I encountered were way bigger than that, so let’s not get (WP) personal here.

Just remember lesson number 2:
“Automattic” really does collect for WordPress.

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lesson 3. for paypal users
PayPal doesn’t have customer service.
(and WordPress Happiness officers are nowhere to be found when things get grim)

 

I said it before: It is the billing department from Automattic, that does all the heavy lifting.
Even though you can contact WordPress’s Happiness Officers (!) through the dashboard, they will not go near it if your message is about money.

Classic good cop, bad cop strategy, where they let Automattic’s billing department execute all the unpopular and in all frankness unfair, protocols.

However, dealing WordPress’ billing department at Automattic is an absolute walk in the park, compared to reaching someone at PayPal!

Good news first:
If you suspect something is wrong with an actual withdrawal on your PayPal account, having PayPal look into that one particular payment is easy, effortlessly, clear, and swift!
Bonus points to PayPal.

However!

AFTER they have found nothing wrong with it, it is close to impossible to reach them, because you can’t open charges for the same payment twice, so to speak.
And the way through phone and chat to reach them is an absolute MAZE!
I have never seen water-tight defenses like that.

The most impressive thing is that they make it APPEAR, they do have a customer service, making you invest in calling them, clicking further to “contact buttons” and so on.
It will take hours before you give up, and I have gone back twice after 10PM, already with my toothbrush in my mouth, because I was still convinced I had just missed a simple button and it couldn’t be that hard.

I honestly can’t remember how I ultimately managed to get a written response out of them, regarding the WordPress withdrawal that was no longer suspicious but unfortunately it now was missing in action!
(and had not reached WordPress)
but I do remember being utterly surprised when one morning I found an actual email from them, which was far from a full answer to my question, but it would later prove to be enough to get things turn for the better at WordPress.

But the reason I was so surprised was because everything I had done, talking to chat computers out of office hours, and then within office hours, which did not seem to make a difference, and so on-
it had all felt as desperate as being stuck in the snow and shooting a light gun in the air hoping someone would see it!

And to then have someone actually responding….
I was surprised.
And I leveraged that little email well, and managed to get things moving at WordPress, but made a resolution to never forget this lesson;

Lesson number 3:
PayPal (effectively) does not have a customer service.

They will protect you from unlawful withdrawals, but are so untransparent that when a seller claims PayPal has not put through the money you paid, there is no way you as the customer can do anything about it.

Therefor I have decided to never use PayPal again, with my own clients.

I just can’t risk doing business with a company that neither me nor my clients would be able to reach for help, and at the same time one little inquiry from either side can block the entire money flow or even discredit me as a business.

Valuable lesson learned.

lesson 4. for all business owners
learn to do without systems, websites, platforms, social media and so on

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I already knew this one, but the lesson has definitely been ingrained, after these 2.5 weeks:
Learn to go without systems.

And there are two reasons for that.

The first is, obviously, that systems (websites, platforms, social media and so on) can fail. They’re also susceptible to change meaning that any one of them, is basically a lifelong commitment of having to keep up.
There is a saying to “burn the boat”, if you want to force yourself to move forward.
Burn the boat then means:
Don’t give yourself an option to go back or withdraw.

But I would like to point out that another downside from having a boat is that it requires you to maintain the boat, and maybe even need to upgrade it or otherwise invest in it.
Having a boat is always a bigger liability than not having a boat to begin with!

All the money you invest in the boat will be gone the moment your boat gets lost.
And also:
The more income streams that are tied to you having a boat, the bigger the financial risk.
You’re now not just looking at losing the money invested in the boat, but you’re also losing money every day you do not have a boat.

What I have learned the past 2.5 weeks is that all systems should be like boats: It’s NICE to have them.
And if you have a boat, sure you should monetize it.

But be very weary before you tie the lifeline of your business, to the lifeline of your boat!

Learn to do business without boats, without systems,(websites, platforms, social media and so on) and see them as accelerators.
Not prerequisites.

There is of course one exception:
If you are, and want to be and choose to be, in the business of having boats.

Literally speaking – with a boat meaning a boat! – this would mean for example your business is a catamaran factory or a shipping company.
And figuratively speaking – with a boat meaning systems, websites, platforms, social media and so on – this would mean for example you are an online company, selling digital products, systems and services.

So all of the above is about why a regular business, should think twice or maybe trice, before they make their business about “boats” (systems), when the boats and systems should have been supportive characters.
Instead of the very foundation of the business.

Boats, (systems, websites, platforms, social media and so on) should not BE the business unless THEY ARE, the actual business.

But there is even another reason, you may want to think EVEN harder and deeper before you set foot aboard a ship that may take you on a trip you definitely did not sign up for.
And that reason is this:

Many of us are not here to run a business;
We are here to DO a certain work we love!

We’re professionals who love the actual, factual, craft of whatever it is we do.

Even if that would appear to be purely commercial, like company that buys and sells, we would still love the grind of being in trade.
We love how it tests us. We love solving problems that have to do with whatever it is we do. We love how we grow, within our craft, and from our craft.

We do NOT get satisfaction like that from solving problems with our website or clearing payments!

So even though business wise, it may seem like a savvy decision to tech-up and automate; Many of us will start resenting the time and energy it will continuously end up requiring.

It’s like what I said at the beginning:
10+ years of having countless websites at WordPress.com has been a walk in the park compared to one independently hosted website I’ve had since 2010.
WordPress is in the business of building and maintaining systems;
I just want to blog, and thanks to them, I can.

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closing story about one of the best sales people of our times

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I would like to end this post with an example which I have used often, because it is such a strong example both of stripped-down barebones selling, as well as of great and consistent marketing.

The example is a Dutch artist called Herman Brood.

Herman Brood was a rock star in the Netherlands, and he maintained his public persona really well. He struggled with drugs and alcohol throughout his life, yet he kept taking care of the way he presented himself.
Dying his hair, choosing the right clothes, taking care of his teeth.
He was also soft-spoken and friendly, you would have been hard-pressed to find anybody who did not like him.

I consider the way he showed up for his audience, which in his case was almost everybody because he was so famous and he was recognized in the streets like any celebrity; I consider that, the ideal way each and everyone of us should show up in our business.
It was, although I doubt he would have called it that, amazing marketing.

We were all in love with him, and he could have sold us anything.
And he did.

Because Herman Brood was a painter. And he had been to art school too, just that his music career had taken off before the art did. But later in his life he got back to painting and drawing.

Now here’s why Herman Brood is such a great example of learning how to get back to the barebones of doing business;

Herman Brood could paint something, walk out on the streets, and sell it. 

-> Zero <- systems.

I believe that ideally we, the people who are not in the boat-building business literally nor figuratively, WE should be able to sell like that.

And sure.
If Herman Brood had had a website, an Etsy account, a PayPal and an Instagram?
He would have sold MORE.

But he was an example of what pure, virtuoze selling looked like.

And as long as, like in my case, a website down or a payment option falling through, catches you offguard, stresses you out, and has you on the VERGE of doubling down on all that tech so that in the future nothing can go wrong?!

You’re not there yet.

Like so many, you and I may have a long way to go until we reach that level.
But that should never convince us we’re better off going in the business of selling boats.

~Suzanne

When I did not have access to this website, I brought back “Specify. Sell. Repeat.”, for financial freedom:
https://declubyoga.com/2023/11/14/specify-sell-repeat-in-particular-when-your-tech-goes-down-your-industry-collapses-and-you-just-lost-money/

“Specify. Sell. Repeat.
In particular when your tech goes down, your industry collapses, and you just lost money.”

Offer closes 30 Nov  Extended: 11 December 2023

THE ROCK STAR

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THE ROCK STAR, is Catacombe’s signature 3 hour session, for anyone who knows they require freedom, more than anything else.
And their gold, is their message.

THE ROCK STAR is a one-time investment, and our conversation is confidential.

To book, email me at:
s_beenackers@hotmail.com

Terms and conditions at:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/terms-conditions/

Once we know we are a good fit, my price is accepted by you and you choose to make a booking;
We move.

It is possible the above story has already given you an outline of what you want to discuss.

If you think you would benefit from a broader approach, my suggestion will be to sort your story into:

1. the earthly plane
Your possessions, worldly matters, income streams, worries and responsibilities you fear you can’t meet.
A helpful term could be how do things look from the perspective of financial freedom, or worldly freedom.

2. your purpose
What is the work you love doing, what are the moments big or small, that you know you are aligned. Has God told you, what you’re here for?
This is about creative freedom, or even karmic freedom.
Are you free to do the work, that is yours?

3. your Rock Star expansion
What is the fullest expression you are here to bring?
And what are the areas you’re playing small, as if cut off from your powers?
We investigate if in those areas, the rules you play by are yours, or society’s.
“3” is related to sexual freedom.
Like anything, it is up to you if that is part of our conversation or not.

Because all three points are just a suggestion, they offer a good framework providing one hour for every topic, to go deeper looking for answers.
But the setlist is not fixed.

I have merely built the stage for us, and we have three hours.

It is up for you to take it.

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Instagram – Twitter – Rock Star Writer Facebook – Facebook Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver – LinkedIn