Even in a week like the last one, which was particularly challenging in times that were already quite confusing, you can still rely on them. Even now, life coaches, motivational trainers and mindfulness experts are undeterred by their followers with advice, action and life wisdom and post catchy lines on Instagram, often with exclamation marks, preferably in italics. Don’t give up on the way to self-realization, to personal success!
Bodo Schäfer, for example, who describes himself as “Europe’s money coach #1”, who likes to present himself with a gray suit vest and wagging his index finger, knows: “A dream is essential if you want to shape the future.” Laura Malina Seiler, on the other hand, self-proclaimed “spiritual teacher and visionary”, also bestselling author of the title “Zurück zu mir”, almost 300,000 followers, believes: “Peace begins in you.” And Julien Backhaus, type prematurely aged business administration student, editor of the magazine successwho likes to wear a quilted jacket and a casually wrapped scarf, comes up with a rather timeless insight in a little film these days, which he presents all the more seriously: “First swim against the current and then with it.”
Publisher of the magazine “Erfolg”: Julien Backhaus.
(Photo: Wikimedia commons/ public domain)
Anyone who recognizes a certain absurdity in these bon mots, who is less enlightened by these sayings and rather amused, should head for the “Business-Lion”. Because the business lion, according to the Instagram account “Motivational Speaker”, takes the absurd to the point of absurdity: “Every mistake could be your last, so it’s better not to make one,” he let his followers know last Wednesday. Naïve natures could get the idea that ruthlessness is the USP, the unique selling point of this channel: “You can recognize a truly beautiful person by their appearance” is written in white letters in front of a red-haired beauty. Or: “It’s better to be rich and stupid than stupid and poor.” Less naïve natures quickly notice that what is now being broadcast en masse on all sorts of platforms is being satirized here. Or as Christopher Strutz finds: “It’s the same with motivational slogans as with fruit flies. Or with plutonium. The larger the amount, the more exhausting it becomes.”
Other coaches offer him cooperations
Strutz, 35, is the “Business Lion”. You can reach him on the phone in the afternoon. A very tidy-sounding guy, his main job is an advertising copywriter, who immediately uses first-name terms and always has to laugh when he tells individual stories about his, yes, small art project, which he has been running since 2019 and for which there is now a book with the beautiful title “Der lion is the shark among the eagles”. Strutz’ first post was “A lion always finds a bridge, no matter how torrential the river is”, and the test arrangement was: How long does it take for someone to realize: Hey, that’s not meant to be taken seriously? To this day, 90,000 followers later, some consider the Business-Lion a real life coach, they applaud with rocket or hundred percent emojis under his tiles.
He has also received serious offers of cooperation from the industry, many are followers of his, some have stolen his sayings right away. Once, for example, his tried-and-true animal metaphor: “It’s called a million-ary, not a mi-sheep-ary” became an even more trying “Be a lion. A lion. It’s called a million-ary and not a mi-duck-ary .” Oh yes, the thing with the animals. According to Strutz’ experience, they are part of the standard repertoire of sayings. Especially with lions “you can actually justify everything”, he thinks. Because they always had, now he’s taking an artistic break, “the right mindset”.
Always the right mindset: lion as a joker on the account “The Businesslion”.
(Photo: Screenshot/Instagram/der_businesslion)
On Mondays, at noon and on Fridays, Strutz now fills his channel with, as the saying goes, “content”. His little brother proofreads, a free image database and an app “for free” are enough to achieve an impression that is in no way inferior to the most successful mindfulness and motivation artists. However, Strutz’s fascination with a largely humor-free industry in which simple insights are disseminated with an attitude of absolute wisdom is not undiminished. Some of the sayings, he says, are “disturbingly stupid.” Others, on the other hand, are simply very cynical, preaching an uncomfortable worldview in which “cold, egomaniacal profit maximization is the top priority.” Countering this point of view with slightly subversive methods has become more than just a hobby. Or as the “Business-Lion” once put it: “Too much character is bad for the money.”