Episode 490: #Tashmas Day 5: Is your desire to help more people actually sabotaging your business?

If you’re tuning into the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, chances are you’re a generous soul—you genuinely want to help people with your business. It’s one of the things I absolutely love about this community. But what if your desire to help as many people as possible is actually holding your business back? Yep, we’re diving deep into that today.

AND I have a super special offer for you with this episode of #Tashmas… it’s a special VIP ascending offer!

Wait… What is #Tashmas?

I do it for both my birthday (1-12 March) and pre-Christmas (1-12 December) every year! Every day up to the 12th of December, there will be a new daily podcast episode, with a hot tip or practical strategy as per usual… but you ALSO get a gift! The daily gift could be a freebie, a special offer, a competition… but there will be something for YOU every single day.

Let’s dive in!

EPISODE 490: Listen using the player below, or click the links to your fave platform to subscribe and listen over there:

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What Generosity Looks Like in Business

I see so much generosity in the Heart-Centred community. Business owners want accessible pricing, less financial pressure on clients, and more nurturing all around. Honestly, it’s a beautiful thing, and I wish some of the big corporations would learn a thing or two from us!

I’m the same—I want to help as many people as I can. In the Sacred Money Archetypes, ‘Nurturer’ comes up as my third-highest trait. So, I get it. I LOVE generous humans, and I love watching this play out in our community.

But here’s the sticky bit: If you’re not strategic with your generosity, your own drive to help more people might be the exact reason you’re limiting how many people you actually get to help.

My Story of “Helping More” That Backfired

Let me give you a real example. After my first-ever $20k month in business, I went to a webinar about passive income and selling online courses. The message was: if you’re not selling passive income products, your income is capped. I bought into it, and it completely derailed my successful business model.

Suddenly, I’d stopped nurturing my one-on-one high-ticket clients to chase the passive income dream. I launched my first course—and went from $20k in sales to $3,800 in my first launch, and then just $900 in the month after that!

I made this change for what felt like a good reason: it would be more accessible, cheaper for my clients, and I could reach more people at once. In my head, this would help me help more people. The reality? I ended up helping fewer people, and my business income tanked—for months.

Shiny Low-Ticket Offers: Are They Helping… or Hurting?

And it didn’t just happen once. Throughout my years as a business owner, I’ve convinced myself at different times that I needed low-ticket offers—tripwires, $27 ebooks, all that. It was the classic “everyone online says this is how you grow fast!” The truth for my audience? Low-ticket offers didn’t help them or me.

If you introduce low-ticket stuff (or tons of freebies) too soon, you can unexpectedly sabotage your business growth. You might think, “More people will get access!” But sometimes, you’re just creating more homework for the people who need you most.

Freebies Without Strategy: The Trap of “Always Giving”—Without Getting Results

I love freebies. Seriously! I have a collection of them in my business. But here’s the catch: every single freebie I create has a very specific job in my client attraction process. I know who it’s for, how it’s meant to help, and what the next step should be.

But I see lots of generous entrepreneurs cranking out new freebies all the time—a new webinar every month, opt-ins galore, weekly live streams, constant Q&As. Without a strategy, you can end up creating a ton of stuff that doesn’t move people closer to working with you.

Practical Example: When Low-Ticket Offers Slow Down the Real Sales

Let’s talk data: when your numbers show that people aren’t moving from your freebies or low-ticket offers to your main program, maybe something’s up.

Back in 2016, I created Lean Startup School, a $49 self-study course designed to bring people closer to my main program, Take Off. I figured if people bought a low-ticket thing, they’d be more likely to jump into the high-ticket offer.

But here’s what happened: I made over 400 sales of Lean Startup School in six months. AND I also saw my conversion rate for the Take Off program drop. I’d inadvertently created a detour! Instead of heading straight into Take Off, people felt like they had to complete Lean Startup School before considering the next thing. They gave themselves “homework”—they had to finish every module, get the most out of it, and THEN maybe buy Take Off. It delayed their journey, and it held both of us back.

Buyer Psychology: The “Homework Issue” Is Real

This homework trap is especially common if you mostly sell to women or marginalised folks. We are often more likely to hold ourselves accountable for finishing “what’s on our plate” before moving to the next step—even when it’s just a $49 course or a freebie.

If someone has bought a low-ticket offer and hasn’t finished it, they’ll often delay even thinking about your main offer. I call this the homework issue. You may have felt this yourself. You grab a $27 program, tell yourself you’ll do the work before investing in anything else, and then… it sits there, unfinished.

Freebies can also create a similar effect, especially if they’re multi-step—a five-day challenge, a video series, or an ebook with hours of content. People get stuck in research mode, not taking action, and not moving towards actually working with you.

The Emotional Toll: How Generosity Can Lead to Burnout

When you’re stuck in this pattern, it can feel like you’re always creating, teaching, sharing—and it’s just not paying off. That’s exhausting. It’s easy to start resenting your audience or labeling them as “freebie chasers.” You feel under-resourced and burnt out, and you start collecting unhelpful beliefs about what your audience will or won’t pay for. It’s like you’re carrying tons of baggage that might not even be true.

Why Accessibility Doesn’t Just Mean “Make It Cheap”

I hear this all the time: “But Tash, you give away tons of free advice, you have hundreds of podcast episodes, low-ticket courses… doesn’t that prove accessibility is key?” And yes, I do now. But that wasn’t how I started.

In my early business days, I focused on refining just two or three freebies that actually attracted the right leads. Whenever someone asked for help beyond what my freebies offered, I’d offer a one-on-one session—often at a discounted rate for a limited number of spots. I got really good at qualifying leads, selling my VIP 1:1 package (which, at the time, was $2,500 for six months), and practicing my sales conversations. That’s how I hit a $20k month just six months in.

What I wish I’d done? Stayed on that path longer. If I could go back, I wouldn’t have been so quick to chase passive income and low-ticket offers. I would have refined and systemised my high-ticket sales process, raised my prices as I got better, and made great income my baseline before scaling freebies, low-ticket offers, or group programs.

Why High-Ticket Is the Fastest Way to Generosity

If I’d stayed focused on my 1:1 packages and built a solid income baseline first, I would have had the resources—team, VA, ads budget—to be even MORE generous, create more free content, and run group programs at accessible prices. Instead, when my income dropped, I had to let go of my VA, put rent on my credit card, and scramble to rebuild.

That’s why, inside the Take Off program, we treat VIP one-to-one as the pathway, not the end point, to a sustainable, profitable business. There’s a lot of hype about freeing up your time by selling courses or charging for webinars… but for most people, that’s actually a detour. If low-ticket or paid webinars create more homework for your audience, and delay their purchases of your main offer, you might just be sabotaging yourself.

The Take Off Model: Hanging Out in the “Good Bit” Longer

I get it—people want to help hundreds, not just five clients a month. But the fastest, most sustainable way to expand your reach and help more people is to first build that solid, high-ticket foundation. Once you’re consistently selling your VIP packages, you have the time, energy, and money to scale up with confidence.

Inside Take Off, many students get to phase one—where they’re confidently making 1:1 sales every week—and just enjoy it for a while. No pressure to run webinars, fill blogs, automate social media, or create a massive audience. They enjoy building up belief in their work, and THEN move on to scaling their audience and creating more freebies or low-ticket offers later.

You Don’t Need To Join Anything (But Here’s How I Learned)

I share this advice for free, far and wide, because I see so many generous entrepreneurs stuck in “busy, but broke” mode. They’re constantly churning out content and freebies, trying to build an audience—without validating the core offers and foundations of their business.

The real shortcut is having 1:1 conversations, making 1:1 sales, and delivering 1:1 experiences. It’s not the “sexy” model you see all over Instagram—but it’s what really works.

My Rant: Generosity Shouldn’t Mean Burnout

I get ranty about this because I don’t want heart-centred, generous people spending years under-resourced, underpaid, and burnt out. Your desire to help more people shouldn’t be what holds you back.

The fastest way to grow your business, your audience, and your generosity is to fill your own cup first. Get those high-ticket foundations nailed, then expand your reach. You can THEN create more accessibility, more freebies, and more group programs with true sustainability.

Your Day 5 #Tashmas Gift!

Because it’s day 5 of #Tashmas… here’s your special treat! I’m offering discounted VIP 1:1 sessions via ascending price. The first session is $200, the next is $300, and so on until I close the offer or we reach December 12th (the last day of #Tashmas). Normally, these are $1,495 per session—so this is juicy!

You’ll get my personal help to plan your pathway to helping more people, growing your audience, being more accessible—all the things—BUT in a way that’s actually sustainable for you. We’ll tackle your market, business model, and any questions you have in a deep-dive session.

Jump in quick to get the lowest price!
Find the Day 5 post on my Facebook page: facebook.com/tashcorbincoaching

I hope this episode has planted a seed—that helping more people starts with resourcing yourself first. The way to true generosity in business is to build solid foundations, enjoy the journey, and expand when you’re genuinely ready.

Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.