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Integrity in the digital product space comes down to one thing: your actions being aligned with your values, on both sides of the sale. As a business owner, that means never selling a result you haven’t experienced or helped someone else experience. It means never inflating your numbers, and never teaching a strategy you don’t actually use. It means focusing on transformation, not revenue, because the revenue is truly the bonus. As a client or student, integrity means honoring what you signed up for. You complete your payment plan. You communicate openly if money gets tight. And you talk to the business owner before you dispute a payment. The simplest test? If you wouldn’t want your own clients and students to do it to you, then don’t do it to others. This isn’t about pointing fingers. It’s about awareness, so you can be a more educated buyer and a more trustworthy business owner.
Why I’m talking about integrity (and why it matters to you)
Before I dive in, I want to say this is not an episode to toot my own horn and say, hey, look at me, I’m so great, you should invest in my offers. This is not me talking at you. This is me talking with you.
I’ve just seen too many things lately, if I’m being quite honest with you. Too many things on social media and on the back end of businesses, my own business as well as clients’ businesses, to not talk about this topic. And that is the conversation around integrity.
This is something you need to be aware of as you invest in other people’s offers, because I want you to be educated when it comes to investing, whether you’re spending $5 or $5,000. And it’s also something I want you to be aware of for your own business, because I’ve said this many, many, many times before, but awareness is one of the best skills you can have as a business owner.
My goal with this episode is simply that it is awareness. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone. I’m not a perfect human being, nor am I a perfect business owner. I have made many mistakes in business and I’m constantly working to improve myself every single day. I know that you and I are on the same pursuit of getting 1% better each day, or you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast episode right now. So let’s dive in. I want to talk about integrity from the business owner perspective as well as from the client perspective.
What integrity looks like as a business owner
Let’s first talk about integrity as a business owner. So many people are selling things, and I’m not going to sugarcoat this. So many people are selling things that are trash to make a buck. They have never experienced the results that they’re selling, or they’ve never helped anyone else experience those results. They inflate their numbers, whether those numbers are revenue numbers or weight loss numbers or whatever those numbers are. They say things because they know it’s going to go viral and it’s going to perform well.
To give an example: randomly (and I say randomly, but obviously the algorithm fed this to me strategically, so maybe it wasn’t that random) I saw a creator’s post pop up on my feed last week. She was teaching a strategy in a carousel post, and the post had gone mega viral. I want to say it had like 20,000 likes, which means you can only imagine how many views it had. But the comment section was just person after person calling her out, because she doesn’t actually use the strategy she was teaching. She knew exactly what to say to go viral, and it worked. But at what cost? At the cost of her integrity, because people recognize when you’re teaching a strategy you’re not doing, telling people it’s working, telling them to go out and do it, when you’re not even doing it yourself because it doesn’t actually work.
I also saw a post from a girl saying she joined a mastermind where everyone inside was inflating the revenue they make. And I think we have lost the plot in the digital product based space, in this online space, when it comes to running a business.
It’s about transformation, not revenue
It’s about transformation, not about revenue. The revenue is truly the bonus. Yes, I know you started your business to make a lot of money and to have the freedom that comes with making money. That will come. But if your focus is only on the revenue and not on the impact, not on the transformation, you are going to run into so many issues.
To me, that’s the fix for this issue. Instead of asking ourselves how much can I make, we should be asking ourselves: how can I make sure as many people as possible complete this offer, whatever that offer is, and get the results I promised them on the sales page? How can I do everything possible to get them to that point?
And you know what’s really great? As you do that, as you focus on the transformation, the revenue will come, and it’ll be more than you could ever imagine making. But your focus needs to be on the right thing. It needs to be on transforming, not on the numbers. We could talk about vanity metrics, we could also talk about revenue numbers, but transforming is what we’re in the game to do, and people are who we’re in it to do it for.
What integrity looks like as a client or student
Now let’s talk about having integrity as a client and as a student in other people’s offers. If you sign up for an offer that has payment plans, you still have to pay all of those payments, even if you don’t get anything from that offer. Maybe you go through the offer and think, I hate this, I don’t align with the way this is being taught, whatever.
A payment plan is not a cop-out strategy. It is not an exit strategy. It is a kind way to make an offer more accessible. If you are signing up with a payment plan so that you have a way out, you should not be buying that offer at all.
I’ve had so many poor educational investments myself, easily $10,000 worth, where I purchased the offer and thought, okay, this is not aligned, or this should not be charging what they charge for this, it’s just not high quality. I’ve had so many different experiences like that, and I’ve still continued to pay everything that I owed. I even had one investment that was $4,000. I didn’t get anything from that offer, it was not aligned in any way with how I wanted to run my business, and what was sold to me was not what I was getting. And I still paid every single payment for that $4,000 offer.
There is no “oh my gosh, I don’t like this, so cancel my payments.” If you sign up for a payment plan, you complete all the payments. There is no “oh, I can’t make a payment, so just remove me from the offer.” No, no, no, no. If you sign up for a payment plan, you complete all the payments, period.
What to do if you genuinely can’t pay
If you literally cannot financially complete the payments, then reach out to the business owner. Have an open and honest conversation with them. They should work out a plan with you, and most people will. I would work out a plan with you to help you out, whether that’s pausing payments, giving you some type of extension, or whatever it is.
Reach out and be open and honest, like, hey, this is my situation. People are going to be way more open to helping you when you share your situation with them, versus seeing on the back end notifications coming in: failed payment, failed payment, failed payment. What they’re thinking in their head is, this person is trying to get out of this offer, even if you’re not trying to get out of it.
Talk to the business owner before you dispute a payment
Another thing as a client and as a student: if you have an issue with the offer, just talk to the person. Talk to the business owner first before you try to dispute the payment. Most business owners will gladly make something work and go above and beyond to help you out.
I just had a student dispute a payment from something she bought about six months ago, I think it was back in January. She just disputed the payment with no communication with me prior. I would have been so happy to sort out any issue she had. Just hearing her out would also help me improve my offer, make me a better business owner, make me a better teacher. I would have loved to hear all the things she had to say. If she had just reached out to me, I would have been so happy to help.
So the simple fix from the client and student side is this: if you wouldn’t want your clients and students to do it to you, then don’t do it to others. I’m a big believer that the way you lead yourself in your business and in your personal life attracts the clients and the students who come into your world. So think about the standard you want to set, and set it through your actions.
The standard I hold myself to
Me personally? I will never ask or tell you to do something I haven’t done or tested myself. If I’m telling you to do something, I’ve done it. And if I haven’t, I’ll say, hey, I’ve heard of this strategy before, I’ve never done it myself, so I don’t know how it’s going to work, and I’m going to be so transparent with you about that.
I will also always tell you whether or not an offer is a good fit for you based on whether it’s truly a good fit, not based on what my bank account looks like, and not based on what my revenue goals are for that month or for that launch. I will always be so honest with you, even if it means I make less money.
Something else about me: I invest a minimum of $50,000 per year into my business and into my own personal development. I would never ask anyone to go and invest that amount of money if I hadn’t invested that amount myself. I go first. My actions are aligned with my values. And that’s really the conversation I want to bring here, just making sure we are all aligned in the way we run our businesses and also the way we show up as clients and students in other people’s offers.
Your homework: one honest question for each side
So your homework from today’s episode is this. I want you to pull up the last offer that you invested in. Again, whether it’s $5,000 or whether it’s $5, I don’t care. Pull up that last offer. And then I also want you to think about the last offer that you sold, whether that was a course, coaching, whatever.
I want you to ask yourself one honest question for each:
- If you’re the buyer: did you show up to this the way you would want your own clients to show up for you?
- If you’re the seller: am I building this around how much I can make, or around the transformation of the offer and getting people to the result I promised them on the sales page?
That’s the whole thing. Integrity isn’t about being perfect. It’s about your actions being aligned with your values, on both sides of the sale.
If you want to build a business rooted in that kind of transformation-first, sustainable scaling, that’s exactly what I teach inside Scalability, my signature program for scaling to consistent months without sacrificing your integrity or burning out.
Frequently asked questions
What does integrity mean in the online business world?
Integrity in the online space means your actions are aligned with your values on both sides of the sale. As a business owner, it means only selling results you’ve actually experienced or helped others get, never inflating your numbers, and never teaching strategies you don’t use. As a buyer, it means honoring what you signed up for and communicating honestly instead of quietly bailing.
Do I still have to pay a payment plan if I don’t like the course?
Yes. A payment plan is not an exit strategy, it’s a kind way to make an offer more accessible. If you sign up for a payment plan, you complete all the payments, period. If you genuinely can’t afford a payment, reach out to the business owner and have an honest conversation. Most will work out a pause or an extension with you.
Should I dispute a payment if I’m unhappy with an offer?
Talk to the business owner first. Most will gladly make something work and go above and beyond to help you before you ever reach a dispute. Disputing with no communication robs them of the chance to fix the issue, and it robs you of a resolution you’d probably be happy with.
Why should I focus on transformation instead of revenue?
Because the revenue is the bonus, not the point. When your focus is only on the numbers, you cut corners and lose trust. When you focus on getting as many people as possible to complete your offer and get the result you promised, the revenue follows, and it ends up being more than you imagined.
How do I know if I’m running my business with integrity?
Pull up the last offer you sold and ask one honest question: am I building this around how much I can make, or around the transformation and the result I promised on the sales page? If your actions match your values, you’re on the right track. If they don’t, that’s your awareness cue to adjust.
