Estimated read time: 4 mins

Today’s tea is a collection of unrelated elephants in the room, underexplored ideas relevant to anyone running an online business in 2026.

What you’ll learn in this article:

🍵💲Embrace the cringe, no one’s gonna remember anyways 

🍵💲Lurkers, mangos, and the nature of growth 

🍵💲Are courses dead?

7 musings on modern online business

I was journaling in bed the other night when my husband walked in and gave me a look… “is everything okay?” he asked, “oh god, are you mad at me?”

I lovingly informed him that I don’t *only* journal when there’s something wrong. 

In truth, these days I write to remember. Little things my kids do and say. Patterns I’d like to interrupt. Snapshots of life in foreign lands. & ponderings that feel true so I’d like to share them with YOU.

1. I believe most people greatly overestimate both our own memories and those of other people. 

Scary in a personal sense. Liberating in a business one. 

No one remembers what they ate for lunch yesterday let alone that you haven’t emailed them in 3 weeks. 

You’re not just allowed to repeat yourself, you MUST repeat yourself again and again to have any hope of your message being remembered. 

2. The bar is actually so low 

One of my clients has been trying to contact Kajabi’s customer support for over 3 weeks. Her whole email list has disappeared inside of the platform and she, a customer, cannot get a hold of anyone. 

I hired a contractor recently who decided mid-project that it was too much work, wanted more money, and I had to finish the job myself. 

I’ve reached out to 7 photographers in the last 2 weeks and only 3 even got back to me. 

It’s easy to believe you’re competing against a bunch of A-players — you’re not. 

Loved this newsletter from Justin Welsh speaking to the same thing. 

3. Lurkers are the bulk of your audience 

I admit, I am a lurker. Most people are. Commonly we write and tailor our offers to the vocal minority, but don’t forget about the quiet majority. The watchers, the listeners, the readers who never comment or reply but do in fact, buy. 

4. Growth happens slowly and then all at once

I am in mango and avocado HEAVEN in Vietnam. There’s a big mango tree in our yard that our neighbor said they harvested 200lbs of fruit from last year. 

Mango trees take 5-10 years before bearing any fruit. Most energy is diverted below the soil building strong roots before any juicy mangos ever even hint at showing themselves. 

The same is often true in business. It can feel like nothing much is happening and then all at once, FRUIT.  

5. The nature of adult friendships 

I have a new friend here and she is so lovely. She’s also my neighbor and has little kids and those 2 things make it easy to hang out. 

Such is the nature of adult friendships, so often forged out of convenience and proximity. 

I think if there’s one thing social media *might* be good for, it’s creating perceived proximity. Email and video too. You curate your digital neighborhood and end up buying from those you’ve befriended. 

We tend to romanticize connection, but most trust is built slowly, predictably, and without fireworks.

6. Social slop and its alternatives 

This little ditty made me turn off my phone in horror and think for a hot minute: 

This feels connected to everything we’re seeing right now — in business, content, and what people are tired of consuming.

7. Are courses dead? 

If you haven’t been following, Jenna Kutcher recently shut down her highly successful podcast and Amy Porterfield announced she won’t be launching Digital Course Academy again. 

The rhetoric following these deeply personal decisions has largely consisted of a false binary that PODCASTS ARE DEAD. COURSES ARE DEAD. 

Like there’s some conspiracy behind their decisions that always comes back to their no longer being enough MONEY to justify the effort. 

What a stretch y’all. Harkins to old times and old human patterns rooted in desire for certainty. 

Charles Darwin surely inspired many a RELIGION IS DEAD. The internet and rise of blogging and short form content resulted in BOOKS ARE DEAD. 

We desperately want something to be either dead or alive but the reality is far more complex and nuanced. 

The emotional fuel behind ‘X is dead’ narratives is rarely about data, and almost always about fear.

Jenna’s response to all of this on Substack was so classy and on point: 

“For a long time, women have moved through spaces where there weren’t enough chairs for everyone. That kind of scarcity gets into your bones. It teaches you, somewhere beneath conscious thought, that her win might mean your loss.

That if she’s taking up space there might be less room left for you. When a man watches another man succeed, he often thinks that if that guy can do it, so can he, but when women watch women, sometimes a different instinct stirs. A tightening. A quiet whisper of what if there’s only room for one of us.”

I also loved Melyssa Griffin’s take, who years ago shut down her multi-million dollar a year digital course company to pursue a new path. 

At a certain point, alignment becomes more important than money.

What musings have been on your mind lately?

The more random the better. Hit reply and let me know.

Sip on this…  

🧋Energy is everything. Want stories from dozens of successful online business owners on how they manage and preserve theirs (yours truly included)? Check out the Energy Savers free event my friend Michelle is running starting Jan. 25 

🧋A far more nuanced take on “courses are dead” and AI slop from my friend Cheyenne. 

🧋 Me this weekend 👇🎂