To think that digital creators and business coaches are not proper jobs?

OK, I’ve been trying to ignore your ‘proper job’ judgements, but now you’ve linked to an actual friend of mine, so I gave in.

I may actually know your friend. If she’s working with the woman you link, then yes, she will be working damn hard to build a business that works for her.
Is it her success (or even potential success) and freedom that bothers you so much?

No, most coaches and mentors who work in the online space are definitely not doing MLM. The ones I know are using very specific skills to help others, usually other entrepreneurs, to create a better life for themselves, their families, and their clients.

Many of them are earning extremely well. Some of them earn 5 or even 6 figures per month. Yes, per month. Legally. And yes, of course tax is paid. 🙄

Not every person has the desire to be in a corporate, salaried, ‘proper job’.

I come from a long line of self employed women. And I was thrilled when my daughter also chose to work for herself. It takes a very special kind of power, confidence, bloody hard graft and stamina to build your own business and I am immensely proud of her for that.

ETA Just seen your comments about her appearance. She gets so much of that kind of crap and deals with it with grace and humour. Yes, she admits she has pretty privilege but her life was not easy growing up. She’s incredibly clever and knows her stuff. Also, she’s not a coach. Hah!

I met someone on holiday several years ago and vaguely stayed in touch via sm. A few years ago she trained as a life coach. She posts stuff about mindfulness, inspirational quotes and journalling, and occassionally runs retreats abroad. The posts seem to have very little engagement, ive no idea if or how it generates enough money to live on.

It isn’t rare at all. You are being very judgemental. Jobs and the world move on and develop, there’s nothing wrong with progress. There are far worse jobs and people in the world.

I think you might be asking the wrong question OP.

In two ways -

It is work, but not a job. I wouldn't use 'job' for being self employed or having a career.

Secondly, you are suggesting some of these content creators and business coaches are not qualified to dispense advice. Which is perfectly true. In that sense they aren't doing a useful 'job' but they might be keeping themselves (self) employed

It’s the new MLM, most of them have no clients, and it sounds like there’s a lot of wannabes on this thread. 😂

As a business coach, I can categorically state that what you described is NOT coaching, of any sort.

I work with clients, to help them understand their goals, how to achieve them and what works (and doesn't) for them. This can include executive coaching, leadership skills, but for SMBs I take a look across their whole business. Finance, estates, strategy, people, technology are all important.

I do NOT post pics of me or my clients on social media!

One of the most clueless people I know is a "coach". She's utterly un-self-aware, not the sharpest but a shameless self promoter with a husband who can bring in enough for both of them to live comfortably.

It’s where all the advertising money is

follow the money

if you get lost in online videos your eyeballs are paying for this

they are jobs

Plenty of jobs don’t serve a purpose to the wider world….doesnt mean they aren’t proper jobs

"However, are they jobs that serve a purpose to the wider world?". YABVU and come across unpleasant with your judgement.

Yep, I have a relative who has absolutely crippling anxiety, but he has his own stream and You Tube channel that pays for his rent and bills, and the usual extras.
It is not easy.. you have to be researching for new content etc all the time. The hours you put in our not just the hours the viewers see on YT, but people will think that the 6 hours a week online is all they do. There is tons of behind the scene stuff.

So I think when you have kids saying they want to be a YouTuber etc, they don't realise the work that has to go into it. It is so much more than sitting infront of a camera a few times each week.

Business coaches are invariably a load of bollocks. They’ve usually sold Herbalife or some such shit and now they think they’re qualified to give people business advice. I ran a very successful business and I could confidently give advice on running a business in the same (fairly niche) sector as mine. But I would be useless giving any meaningful advice about the 99.9999% of businesses that I know nothing about, unless it was very generic and superficial advice. And they actually charge people for that bollocks.

Define a proper job then if you are an expert?

My son who has no qualifications because he struggled with his autism is making £3000 a month through YouTube. It’s a proper job. He gets paid, he pays his taxes. You sound very envious tbh

I would have said whether it's a proper job depends whether you can live on what you make doing it.

Some can, the vast majority can't.

It's like playing a sport or being a stand up comedian being a job - it actually is for a tiny percentage of people, but most people who play sport or do standup do not make any money, or not enough money to give up the day job/ not need to be supported by parents or partners.

Proper job - for a few people yes, for most no.

Socially valuable job is something else entirely! Actually the odd disability advocate content creator (and presumably some others) could be argued to be more useful than some other more analogue jobs...

Depending how you look at it either all jobs are socially useful as long as tax and national insurance are paid, or if that's left aside probably very few jobs are.

What’s a ‘proper job’?

A job does not have to be "proper" to serve a purpose to the wider world.
It seems that the jobs that do serve a purpose in the way you say are the ones that do not attract great pay anyway.

What is a "proper" job?

I think if you have upwards of a couple of hundred thousand followers you can make real money and then it’s a real job.