Behind Every Small Business Is Someone Googling Everything
“There’s a difference between having access to information and having someone help you apply it to your actual life.”
YOU CAN GOOGLE THE ANSWER. BUT CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF OUT?
Information is everywhere. The harder part is knowing what applies to you, recognizing when you’re avoiding the uncomfortable answer, and figuring out what to do next.
Sometimes another article, podcast, course, or ChatGPT conversation isn’t what you need.
Sometimes you need a human.
I have learned a lot while building Beyond the Horizon Consulting.
And by “learned,” I mean I have Googled, ChatGPT’d, attended courses, bought courses, downloaded forms, and everything in between.
Because apparently owning a small business means waking up one day and realizing you also need to understand trademarks, copyrights, intellectual property, contracts, insurance, pricing, websites, SEO, packaging, retail displays, shipping, taxes, and approximately 700 other things nobody mentioned when you said, “Hey, I think I want to start a business.”
Most recently? Trademarks and copyright infringement.
I’ve had Beyond the Horizon Consulting for more than four years, and originally, I was going to wait to trademark everything until I had a more solid foundation. My products were still growing. My business was evolving. And trademarking isn’t cheap.
At all.
Pretty much anything I sell right now is going toward paying off that trademark.
But the more I started building my products, creating intellectual property, developing my brand, and thinking about where I wanted all of this to go, the more I realized waiting might actually cost me more.
And then I started hearing the horror stories.
Businesses that had been operating longer than mine had never trademarked their names. Someone else came along, trademarked them, and suddenly the original business owner was dealing with attorneys, rebranding, or rebuilding something they had spent YEARS creating.
Oh hellz no.
I have worked way too hard for that.
Everything I have created through Beyond the Horizon comes from somewhere. My lived experiences. My writing. My coaching. My ideas. My ridiculous little thoughts that somehow turn into products. My brand. My stories.
I wasn't willing to just cross my fingers and hope nobody messed with it. Having that cute little ™ wasn’t just a want. It was becoming a very real need.
So yours truly did what yours truly does.
I researched.
I researched trademarks. I researched the process. I researched attorneys. Then I researched those attorneys. Eventually, I chose one who had been recommended by another business owner I trusted.
Because here's another thing I've learned:
Some lessons I don't want to learn the hard way.
It's the same thing with your website. Miss your renewal and somebody somewhere is apparently sitting there like a little internet vulture waiting to snatch up your domain so they can sell it back to you for twice as much.
No gracias.
I'm already over here trying to figure out how I'm going to afford everything without selling feet pics or working more than five jobs.
I'm trying to work smarter, not harder here.
There Is a Difference Between Using a Tool and Letting It Think for You
Which brings me to another tool I use all the time.
AI.
I will openly admit that I use ChatGPT, Grammarly, and whatever other technology will help me edit, organize my thoughts, check my grammar and spelling, research, and structure these blogs.
Of course I do.
I am running a business, working, writing, creating products, coaching, raising a family, and occasionally attempting to remember that the mandado has to get done.
Use the damn tools.
BUT.
ChatGPT does not write my stories for me.
She hasn't lived my life.
She hasn't experienced what I've experienced.
And most importantly, she's not me.
Now, I wouldn't mind having a cloned robot version of myself that could take over all of my domestic duties. Cleaning. Laundry. Dishes. Maybe figure out what everybody wants for dinner every night.
Pero, we're not there yet.
Until then, AI gets to help with grammar.
And here's where I think we need to have a bigger conversation about what technology can and cannot do for us.
Please Stop Asking Dr. Google to Fix Your Life
In some of my previous blogs, I used to include a disclaimer that basically said:
Do not ask Dr. Google. Seek a human.
And I'll die on a Silent Hill before I tell you otherwise.
We already know people misuse technology to self-diagnose themselves.
You type in “my eye has been twitching for three days,” and fifteen minutes later you're convinced you have six months to live.
So, if people are already doing that with their physical and mental health, what makes me think they're not going to do the same thing with life coaching?
They absolutely are.
And listen, AI can be helpful.
It can give you journal prompts.
It can help you organize your thoughts.
It can explain what a boundary is.
It can give you twenty-seven different ways to tell someone no.
It can even help you think about a situation differently.
But here's what AI can't do.
AI can't sit across from you and see the emotion on your face when you answer a question.
It can't notice that your entire body language changed when you started talking about a certain person.
It can't call you on your bluff because it just watched you say, “It doesn't bother me,” while everything about you says, Chavala, estas arrecha!
And it can't always ask the meaningful follow-up question that comes from what happens in the middle of an actual coaching session.
That's where the human part matters.
I'm a Trained Metiche
Listen.
I'm a trained metiche.
I mean... military interrogator.
I know. I know.
It sounds very intimidating, but I promise I'm not sitting across from my coaching clients under a single dangling light bulb demanding answers.
But I was trained to listen.
Not just to words.
To what isn't being said.
To ask follow-up questions. To notice inconsistencies. To pay attention when something changes.
And those skills didn't disappear when I took off the uniform.
They became part of how I listen to people now.
If you really want someone to hold you accountable, AI and Dr. Google aren't the ones.
And maybe that's exactly why hiding behind the keyboard can feel so much safer.
We say we want accountability.
Until accountability gets uncomfortable.
Until someone asks the question we've been avoiding.
Until we have to say the answer out loud.
Until the thing we've been dancing around suddenly becomes very, very real.
That's why life coaching isn't necessarily easy.
Not because someone else is going to tell you how to live your life.
That's not my job.
You already have enough people doing that.
Coaching requires you to be willing to do the inner work. To sit with uncomfortable questions. To look at your patterns. To admit when something isn't working anymore.
And then decide what you're going to do about it.
READY FOR A HUMAN IN THE ROOM?
You can Google boundaries, journal about them, and ask AI what to say. But if you keep circling the same problem, more information might not be what you're missing.
That’s where coaching comes in.
Sometimes Googling Everything Isn't Enough
I could have researched trademark law for another six months.
I still hired an attorney.
Not because Google wasn't useful.
Not because AI couldn't explain trademarks to me.
But because eventually, I reached the point where information wasn't what I needed anymore.
I needed someone who understood the thing I was trying to do and could help me navigate it.
There's a difference between having access to information and having someone help you apply it to your actual life.
The same thing happens with personal growth.
You can read the books.
Listen to the podcasts.
Save the inspirational posts.
Google the questions.
Ask ChatGPT.
Journal about it.
Research it until you have 47 tabs open and somehow know everything there is to know about boundaries except how to actually set one with your comadre.
At some point, you may not need more information.
You may need a human.
Someone who will listen.
Someone who will ask the next question.
Someone who will notice the pattern you can't see because you're standing right in the middle of it.
Someone who isn't going to give you the answers, but isn't going to let you bullshit yourself either.
That's what I'm here for.
So yes.
Google everything.
Use ChatGPT.
Use Grammarly.
Read the books.
Listen to the podcasts.
Use every damn tool available to you.
I certainly do.
Just remember that sometimes the smartest thing you can learn from all that research is when it's time to close the laptop and talk to an actual human.
Preferably one who happens to be a trained metiche.
