Ep 150: How ABBA'S Global Fame Strategy Will Work Better For Your Business Than What You See Most Entrepreneurs Doing Today
Episode Summary
Ever wonder how some people create such high success and creativity in such a short amount of time—and how you can do the same?
If you’ve ever felt pressured to follow conventional business rules, confused about what steps to take, or just surrounded by people who don’t really ‘get’ you, this episode shows you how a ’70s pop group’s uncommon strategy can help you sell out your offers, embrace your unique voice, and reclaim your three-day workweek.
In this episode you will…
Discover why ABBA’s global fame—despite being dismissed by critics and ignored by America—might be the success strategy your business needs.
Learn what one of the world’s most iconic music groups can teach you about creating standout offers, irresistible messaging, and work that spreads itself.
Uncover the surprising truth about contentment, and why creating from joy might be the most radical, world-changing act of all.
Resources Mentioned:
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Episodes Mentioned:
Ep #34: The 'Too Braggy' Fear and What I'm Doing About It
Ep 149: Why Imposter Syndrome Is Costing You Hours Every Week—And How To Stop It
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This podcast dives into the challenges of leadership, decision making, and delegation, helping women business owners and mompreneurs overcome overwhelm, decision fatigue, and the guilt of working less. Learn to build powerful habits, embrace smarter working, and master time management by streamlining tasks, implementing business systems, and even prioritising self-care. We explore efficiency, productivity, and automation to create passive income, reduce overworking, and finally take time off—without the fear or shame. Say goodbye to imposter syndrome and people pleasing while running a small business: It's time to shift your mindset, reclaim your work-life balance, and thrive!
Full Episode Transcript:
Jenna Harrison: [00:00:00] In this episode, you'll discover why Abba's path to global fame despite being dismissed by critics and ignored by America. Might be the success strategy your business needs. Welcome to the three day work week, helping women entrepreneurs run profitable, meaningful businesses in just three days a week if they like without stress, guilt, or sacrificing growth.
I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, sharing practical strategies, mindset hacks, and even some woo, to help you work smarter, lead boldly, and find true balance. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to the three day work week. We've got a short, fun episode for you today, but it's still packed with really valuable insights that will help your business and your mindset.
Starting today, we'll be talking about the new Netflix documentary on the seventies pop band, Abba, and six great lessons it gives us as entrepreneurs. In this episode, you'll discover why Abba's global fame, despite being dismissed by critics [00:01:00] and ignored by America, might be the very success strategy that your business needs.
And you'll learn what one of the world's most iconic music groups can teach you about creating standout offers, irresistible messaging, and work that spreads itself. You'll uncover the surprising truth about contentment and why creating from joy might be the most radical or world changing act of all.
If you are new around here, you probably don't know that I'm a huge fan of the seventies. I mean, maybe you got keyed in by the look of the disco podcast art, but honestly, that was not premeditated. It's just something we happened upon and I loved it. But anyway, I love that decade. I love that the introduction of the birth control pill created an unstoppable cascade towards equality for women.
I love the paradoxical fashion aesthetic where you had these earthy, [00:02:00] chunky wood accessories and boho looks and world influences. On the one hand, I mean, think about how different that was compared to the sixties and the fifties and the forties and everything before that. But then you also had the glitz of Halston and Diane Furstenberg.
No more corsets. No more pushup bras. And I especially love the music, which was revolutionary in almost every genre. So of course when I saw that Netflix had a documentary on ABBA last night, I just had to devour it right away. After all, I was a toddler when my mom and I were in Greece and Abba was first popular.
We were living the mama Mia experience decades before the musical was dreamed up. Their music was what was playing on my little cassette player in my earliest elementary school memories, along with Blondie and Olivia Newton John. But what I wasn't prepared for when I watched that [00:03:00] documentary were just how many insights their story would reveal for entrepreneurs.
I was sitting there with my mouth open, telling my husband, Ben, remember that part, Ben? Don't forget what he said just there, because I always trust his memory more than my own. It was so good, and I can't wait to share it with you, but first, just in case you don't know, Abba is one of the bestselling music acts in history.
They've sold over 400 million records worldwide, and that's remarkable because they were only active for about a decade and they sang in English even though that wasn't their first language. And their music is the basis of one of the, the most successful musicals of all time, mama Mia, which brought in Get this $4 billion Globally across both stage and film and royalties from just one Abba song alone.
Chicky Tita have contributed more than $4 million to UNICEF for children's welfare initiatives around the world. They [00:04:00] were one of the first major pop acts to donate a hit songs royalties to charity. They really helped pave the way for music-based philanthropy. Now, before we dive into my top six takeaways, I wanna let you know that we've got something really fun and exciting coming up for you this summer.
Our days of deals that we had back in November with such a hit that we're gonna be bringing them back again and this time with completely fun new different offers. Now, I'm not gonna share too many details yet, but let's just say they'll have to do with working smarter, not harder, and it will be perfect timing in order to let you go out and enjoy your summer.
To enjoy your summer without guilt, knowing that on the business front you've got it. I want you to pause right now and head to the link in the show notes so you can get on the wait list because everybody on the wait list who makes a purchase during the days of [00:05:00] deals is going to get a free bonus offer that some would say is even more exciting than the deals themselves, but I don't know.
I'll let you decide that, but it's a free audit from me of your website and your social media. I'll help you see what your people see when they first come to your sites. What information about any of your limited beliefs might be showing up in your copy that might be creating energetic blocks between you and your ideal people.
And I'll also help you work smarter, not harder with the very assets you already have to tighten up your messaging. Shorten the buyer's journey for your clients. And create far higher results with the same amount of effort. So again, if you wanna get in on that, go to the link in the show notes or visit the website@theuncommonway.com slash DOD bonus that stands for Days of Deals [00:06:00] Bonus, DOD bonus.
And now without further ado. Let's talk about six top takeaways from the new ABBA documentary about success, work-life balance, and creating your best and most impactful work in the world. Number one is it all begins with the song, with the right song. Success is inevitable. They knew that no matter what their most important work, their highest leverage activity was to create a song.
There were periods when they were out touring for too long, when they weren't able to do that. We'll talk about that in a minute. But in order to get back to what they loved and people loved about them, because that's the intersection that we all want to live in all the time. In order to get back to that, it had to be about the song.
A reporter was once with Benny and Bjorn when they were creating, and he asked, but aren't you gonna [00:07:00] take notes of any of this music that you're coming up with right now? And they said no because their goal was to create a melody so memorable that you couldn't get it out of your head. If they forgot it, then this obviously wasn't that.
So if the melody wasn't memorable enough to stick, they scrapped it, they moved onto the next one. What if you treated your messaging the same way? What have you treated your offers this way? We are here to stand out and be seen. And I think so often people interpret that to mean that they need to be dancing around on Instagram.
But really what we're here to do is to create our thing to really touch people and impact the people that we are here to work with. And that comes from ideas. It comes from an offer they can't ignore. It comes from words you say that pierce right through them. You are creating something that makes an [00:08:00] impression that commands attention unapologetically.
Now, if this is making you shift in your seat a bit with discomfort, because it would be so much easier just to kind of do what everyone else is doing and fly slightly under the radar. Then I've got two episodes that I'm gonna link to for you. You've gotta check out episode 1 49 on Imposter Syndrome and episode 34 called The Too Braggy Fear and what I'm doing about it, lesson number two, you might not be everyone's cup of tea.
It doesn't mean that you're not great. Lots of people hated Abba and lots of people loved them. In their own country. There was a particularly negative attitude. People felt that they were a manufactured band that was soulless, that had come together just to make money, which is ironic because there was an 85% [00:09:00] tax that they were paying in Sweden for being in an upper tax bracket.
So the country basically guaranteed that nobody would become too rich, but people thought they were in it just for the money. Many critics dismissed them. People laughed at them, their flamboyant costumes after lots of harsh newspaper articles written about them. There were critics calling them shit right there in print.
People interviewed on the street would say the same thing, but at the same time, they were selling record after record. Their music kept topping the charts. They would take entire countries by storm. Australia, for example. And some of their final concerts at Wembley, I think they could have, they sold out maybe four nights or five nights, and they said, people said they could have sold out 16 easily.
And the who's who of Rock would come to these concerts to see them. Pete Townsend famously told them that [00:10:00] SOS was the best pop song ever written. So what I'm getting at here is that what matters is that you keep creating for your people rather than trying to be something for everybody. It doesn't matter how many people don't like you, it matters how many love you.
Or maybe we should say the quality with which you people love you. So next time you have someone say something offhanded to you or write something offhanded and you find yourself thinking about it on repeat. Just watch this documentary. It's gonna give you such a lift. Things could be a lot worse. And really if someone has different taste and doesn't vibe with what you're doing, 'cause that is kind of inevitable, after all, you can still be wildly, wildly successful.
You do you. You be you unapologetically, and your people will find you. Point number three, rest breeds creativity. When they were touring too much, they weren't [00:11:00] able to compose. They were tired, they were cranky with each other. One couple ended up divorcing. They composed best when they were at home, barefoot, sitting on their porch.
Two guys and two instruments. And I mean, we all can get by on stress and pressure, right? We all can produce in that way, but can we produce at that level? And what if we were challenging ourselves to compose at that level, songs that the whole world was humming and the people still know 50 years later.
That kind of work didn't come from pressure. They needed to stop the frenetic schedules. And get back to themselves to create rest and fullness and then compose from there. Point number four, you don't have to follow the common strategy. At that time, everybody thought to become known worldwide, you needed to break into the American market.
It was a must do. [00:12:00] Abba tried at one point, but they had just produced a disco album right when there was a huge backlash to disco in the United States, fueled by a lot of closed-mindedness and homophobia and racism, but they did it without America. No one could believe it. They were huge in Europe, and they became huge in Australia, and finally they were huge in Latin America.
And this is just such a good lesson for us to take to heart because you don't need to conquer America or follow anyone else's rules to build something the whole world loves you. Get to do it your way. Fifth point, action and political action. Take various forms. One of the criticisms of the group was that they seemed too happy and out of touch.
We'll talk about that in a minute, and that they weren't overly political in their music. Again, this is the seventies. So think Vietnam. Think [00:13:00] military coups in Latin America. A lot of strife around the world. But Abba, what they did was they created music that uplifted people, and they donated the charity.
As I mentioned before, they fueled $4 million through royalties for unicef, specifically with the song Chick Tita. In the beginning, they were donating 50% of their royalties, and they later signed over 100% of the royalties of that song to unicef, and that really paved the way for philanthropy with music.
So do the thing that you do because, yeah, they could have worked in another profession. I'm sure there was somebody out there saying that music was unnecessary unless it was political or that it was somehow wrong unless it was political. There were other people probably saying that if they were musicians, they should be doing it differently, but too many people judge from the bench.
They're not out there [00:14:00] living your life or doing your thing, but they have an opinion about how you should be doing it, and it taken too far. They'll even say you are flawed somehow because you don't care enough about their issue. And I get it. I get frustrated sometimes when I hear men talking about or doing something that I perceive is unfair or just unconscious about women's issues.
But at the same time, I know that I'm choosing to care about these issues and educate people about these issues by choice, and that's not going to be everybody's choice. We all have different choices, different ways of doing things. My family laughs at me to no end because I wash every single piece of Saran Wrap that we ever use.
I never buy Saran Wrap. I reuse. I reuse, I reuse. But it breaks my heart to think about throwing plastic in the trash. I donate to organizations that help with women's trafficking. I donate every year to [00:15:00] organizations that support women's empowerment with education and entrepreneurship. And there are 50,000 issues in the world that I don't know enough about that I'm not supporting, quote unquote enough.
The same is true for each and every one of you and each and every person in the world. Ideally, we would do it all, but since we can't, we might as well do things in our way, in the way that we perceive we'll do them best. So for you, if that is through your business, great. If it's not through your business, great.
I, for one, am not going to judge you and label you as uncaring. Let's review these quickly because they all kind of lead up to the final point I wanna bring up. So the first is it all begins with the song. It all comes back down to that thing you do or you offer. And as you really slip [00:16:00] into your expression, you might not be everyone's cup of tea.
But even so, you can still be wildly, wildly successful. Number three, rest breeds creativity. We talk about that a lot here. And also, number four, the strategy that you choose. You get to do it your way. No matter what industry you're in, there is some norm, some group thinking about how things have to be done to be successful in that industry.
I promise you it is not true as long as you are connecting with people, creating real solutions and value for people, you good. Number five, action takes various forms, so really just sing at the top of your lungs here. Let's not be ashamed of how we're helping and let's try not to judge others for how they're helping.
And number six, as you're doing all of this, you're developing a deep sense of trust for [00:17:00] yourself, but also contentment. And contentment, my friends, is counter-cultural. A big part of why they were so criticized is because they were too cheerful. They were too content. There were the European intellectuals that thought that we had serious things to focus on.
But of course, as we know now from history, it wasn't the only time in history that there have been serious things to focus on. We've continued to have serious things to focus on as we do to this day. And there were very like strong, angry movements that were wonderful, right? The punk movements, rock movements, social upheaval, and there was a lot of pure expression there.
But that doesn't mean that others need to be criticized for not sharing that form of expression. Traditionally youthful people feel a lot of fire, right? And then [00:18:00] often elders are quite grumpy, like a grumpy old man. And people who are in their family years are perhaps, you know, disillusioned and they're just getting by and they're in the grind.
There's a norm of discontent because humans have a natural or wired in negativity bias. On top of that, there's like a glorification of that discontent. I remember when I lived in New York City in my twenties, and I'd grown up in kind of a happy suburban neighborhood, and I found New Yorkers who were kind of gruff and neurotic and misanthropes, you know, they didn't like people.
And I found it so refreshing, and I also believed it to be kind of more sophisticated and more real. But now having lived in different places, met different people. Done more loops around the sun. I'm also realizing that's a cliche and it's an easy way out. Let's break that cycle. What if we admired and rewarded people who [00:19:00] create contentment rather than demonizing them?
There was a really funny point in the documentary because they were juxtaposing abba and some of the interviews Abba was doing, where they were always polite and smiling, and even when interviewers were asking some really impertinent questions and they were comparing them to the Sex Pistols and the Sex Pistols were just out to tear everything down, destroy social norms, they would sit there with interviewers on TV just cursing them out, and they were.
Critical of everything. And yet the funny thing is that they were interviewing a roadie who had toured with the Sex Pistols, and they said that the one cassette tape they were listening to on repeat was Abba was Dancing Queen, and it was the road's job to turn over that cassette tape when the side ended.
And heaven forbid the roadie didn't turn it over in time. This is a beautiful tension we have as humans. How we move back and forth between contentment and [00:20:00] discontent. How we can find joy and beauty even in our most difficult times, and how crazily, even in some of the moments when we're kind of the most blessed, we feel the least satisfied.
But when someone creates a life on purpose that brings them contentment. And when someone is brave enough to talk about that, even though so much of the social discourse is about finding what's not right with a situation that's worth celebrating, cheerfulness is not a character flaw. You know, they were mocked for being content, but what if joy is actually the boldest action of all, and that creating from joy.
Can produce work that is just as impactful as people who are creating from hardship. Oh, who knew from a documentary about such a lighthearted pop band? There'd be such deep themes and currents running through it. I hope it's leaving you [00:21:00] feeling inspired and refreshed and ready to take on the world like it did for me.
Drop me a note or leave me a review here and let me know how your week goes. And let's talk again on Tuesday.
Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the clarity first strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit the uncommon way.com. See you next time.
