This is really an update on February and March. It's just that I don't really spend time on the net much anymore, except to reach out to clients. So ya'll are getting an old update for now.
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Edit:
Shiiiiat April and May have already gone too... So uhm. Luckily ya'll got better things to do than sit around and F5 this journal so I haven't REALLY kept you waiting.
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Edit 2:
Shiiiiiiiiiiat June has almost gone too!
I'm back to the 7 day work week, and have been since I started pursuing this business. There is something about the systematic nature of every day that really helps prioritize and get things done. I know that every day is a workday. But I also know that every day is a SHORT work day. When I'm done for the day, which is at about 2 PM, I'm free to get chores done. Now, since my work days are always short I have time to do the chores, so they're not squashed in between a horrendous commute, and my daughter's bedtime. There is plenty of time to get work done in a focused and non-harried manner, and there is time to do the chores and chill as well. It does take some organization during the weekend where my GF and daughter are both home, but it gives us more time and freedom during the work-week. So as far as I can tell, it works out really well.
There IS some degree of annoyance with regards to the 7 day week; no full days of time off means that larger projects around the house needs a bit more planning to get done. As in: larger projects around the house don't get done to the same extent they used to.
With regards to the biz:
I'm focused. I'm on schedule. I'm doing SOMETHING, but I have no idea whether I'm working on the exactly RIGHT thing. Not yet. The chaos of doing something completely new is quite overwhelming, but it's also just a fact of life, so right now I'm just living in the swirl without attaching myself to particular outcomes. The world does what it does. So for now I'm just learning to be content with knowing that I'm moving in the approximately right direction.
I refuse to believe in the crazy-hustle life of an entrepreneur. I refuse to. Putting in hours as the sole metric for success seems to be something born out of lawyer's offices or management consulting. It's not hours, but results, that matter: "move the needle work."
I believe that the hustle appears because it's frightfully confusing to be sitting as a famished spider in the middle of a massive, and ever-changing web of uncertainty. You're tempted to pull every string you can, just to see if it catches something and the effect is to only ever put a 10% effort into any one potentially beneficial endeavour. But the effect is also that you're creating a narrative inside your own head about reaching out in every direction you can, and so you're expending energy but not getting any results, and so in order to GET results you have to expend even more energy. And thus: The Hustle is born. 10% effort won't generate a return on investment.
Results come from focused work on the right things. Always has. Sometimes it happens by design, sometimes it happens by chance. In time I'll figure out what those right things are, but on the other hand I don't really believe that there IS a right thing. It's the one reason why analyzing your way out of a situation doesn't help. You cannot figure everything out, there is no 'everything' to be taken into consideration. Every second the best solution changes and the only way to really ride that wave is to get in the water.
I only need to be about 70% correct in order to move in the right direction and not waste too much time. Focused work is really where it's at. Distraction and multi tasking destroys working environments, whether we'd like to admit it or not. As soon as we TEST our efficiency, we see that a 'boring' and efficent work environment is really where we're happiest.
Sleep. Sit. Eat well. Exercise. Socialize. These are the building blocks of my life right now. When I ease up on my morning mediation I can feel it throughout the day so that one is the real cornerstone. Edit: Except I've tried changing this to an evening meditaion, due to schedule constraints and meditating in the evening is HARD, compared to meditating in the morning, before your mind clogs up.
My initial business strategy (subject to change) is to first learn how to best help people via one-one-one work. Then I'll aggresively produce, market, and sell an online product once I have a good modus operandi down. I'm not in this to make myself a day job. I'm doing this because I want to help as many people as I can, and incidentally that way is via automation and scaling. It's imperative that I keep working hours low. That way I know that I might be approaching inefficient practices or it's time to outsource tasks when I have to work significantly more than my allotted max 60 pomodoro per week (standard work week is 42 pomodoros).
I've discovered a creative habit that works just as well for me when I'm plotting books as it is now that I'm doing market research and value proposition design. Currently I've got business ideas coming out the wazoo and I'm having a hard time sorting them.
The habit is to always, ALWAYS keep a notebook with me. The minute I come up with an idea I write it down. No exceptions. Idea? Write it down. You condition your brain to brainstorm while you're doing something else and after a few weeks of this I can almost physically feel my mind working differently. [1]
Also: I don't have a clear stop metric with regards to market research so for now I'm just going to stop at 10 interviews per customer segment (currently interviewing two different segments) and see what insights I've gleamed from those. Edit: Now I've stopped doing market research and I'm solely focused on getting as good at coaching as humanly possible.
Then it's out in the google trenches to get my most promising ideas tested.
I will admit though, that it's incredibly hard to really let go during the evening. I trust in the process, rationally, but I always feel like I should be doing something more. I have to work a bit on my mentality regarding work and progress, especially during times where I'm not certain what I'm doing. Like right now, where more than 90% of my time is spent on non-coaching related activities.
It's on my mental checklist to try to build a company that focuses on solving client problems, not a shit ton of 'other' problems. Make it simple for me, HIGHLY valuable to my customers, and scalable.
I'm taking lessons at a local coaching academy, and as part of my education I have to coach at least 20 sessions. So I've had to write some copy to try and attract non-paying clients.
My copywriting is atrocious, to the point where I'm flamed rather than welcomed whenever I reach out to people. I posted in a 130K people group for writers on facebook and got nothing but crickets. Then someone else posted something similar to what I did and got more than 200 responses from people who wanted her help... To this day I'm not sure why there was such a difference in responses, but I'll find out soon. I'm writing copy often enough that I'll get the hang of it in a month or two. Ces't la vie; moving on!
My call for free coaching clients on /r/swingdancing was met with ridicule and accusations of patronizing behavior. Now that topic is shut down, because offering to help people overcome their fears of the social dance floor is advertising... *sigh* Ces't la vie; moving on!
When I asked my facebook friends for help on filing out a questionnaire I got more than 70 comments on critique and style and only one person who was up for an interview. The rest wanted to tell me how badly my copy sucked and how they thought I should improve it. Ces't la vie; moving on!
So far ALL my interviews have been mediated through only two people who are up to help me. It's annoying that only two people've got my back in this right now, but it's also illuminating (yet again) to see how few good people you need around to make progress. Don't worry about the billions of people in the world, focus on those few who can truly help you. The rest do you no real harm, those few do you real good.
May update: I've now gotten about 12 new clients after my initial calls for clients, so it's all looking good. Unfortunately some of them are 'quitting early' because I've solved their issues to quickly they're not coming back! I'm trying to set up an organic outreach kind of program to see if I can attract even more clients.
I've coached about 20 people total since starting my prototype in December, and all is going well so far. The coaching lessons I'm taking are really affecting the way I think about humanity, and communication in general.
I've bought an online course to function as accountability and training program to set up my coaching biz ASAP. I have no idea what to do in order to build a good business, but the guy selling the program thinks in a manner I appreciate, so I'm leaning on his methodology to get me places.
It's Sam Ovens's program, in case you -dear reader- is interested.
I've become confident enough to pick up clients after a short talk, and I'm really looking forward to learning how to market and sell better in the near future.
A family reunion actually put in touch with a guy who has about 40 salesmen who need coaching, so there is real opportunity that I can get some real, large-scale, paid work done in about a months time. Compared to the customer-drip I've got going now, it's really interesting to see how I'm going to handle that...
...well, I suspect!
Lindy Hop.
Hoo boy shit's on fire yo!
I went to a Great Gatsby themed social dance recently and had a lot of fun. I was asked to dance repeatedly, and not once did anyone give my any flak for being a newbie. Quite the contrary actually.
Couldn't find a brown sixpence that fit before going, but I did manage to jazz up my Gatsby era outfit with some suspenders.
Brown pants, rolled up sleeved, and suspenders. Just like this guy, except I'm much more handsome...
I posted a video last update of me dancing, making obvious mistakes, and dancing below par. It's obvious we're both new. All sorts of things are obvious about our skill level, and all sorts of other things one might get hung up on when it comes to social pressure, or performance anxiety, but I posted the video anyway for several reasons:
1) To 'give back' to TheAnimal who've been very kind throughout the lifetime of this journal, and who deserves to have his (jokingly) flippant request met.
2) To show how far you can get in a very short time span if you just put a little effort into it.
3) That you can have fun, even when you're bad at something
4) That haters can't touch you unless you let them.
5) Letting yourself out there is a great way to overcome anxiety and fear of failure.
6) We're having fun way before we're at some arbitrary target where we're 'allowed' to have fun.
Now... With regards to point number 5.
There is a fear of failure when you put yourself out there.
Exposure is sometimes thought of as failure, when things turn out in a specific manner. There is this notion that when you expose yourself, there is a possibility of failing, and when you do not expose yourself, there is no chance of failure.
But I disagree.
When you're working inside your comfort zone, the only thing happening is that you're never faced with the choices you make and the failures you truly experience.
This sounds ass backwards so I'll elaborate.
It's only when you make conscious decisions to try something that your potential failures become evident. When you're hiding away behind your daily routines, inside your comfort zone, you're still trying 'something' you're still trying to achieve something, except the attempt is now implicit, hidden from public view. Maybe you're sitting on your ass all evening picking at your phone, making an attempt at being happy, but since it's not explicit, you're not explicitly failing either, and so it 'feels' safe to do so.
Except failure with that strategy is guaranteed!
Happiness and contentment hurts along the way. But only if you let it.
The process:
The process is where it's at. The process is where you should find your results, and your happiness. If you push your happiness beyond the cognitive horizon, to that day when you finally reach your goals, you cannot, by defintion, ever get there.
Build a systematically efficient life for yourself, right here, right now. Take great care of your happiness, choose the burdens you bear with great care and success will follow... Some day.
PS: I know this post is probably the rambliest, incoheriest, shoddiest, messiest[2], post I've ever posted here. But part of me really wants to keep updating this journal to keep myself accountable, I also want to post quality contect, but right now my prioritize are somewhere else, so I've chosen to just post this, and move along.
PPS: I did notice that several members are having a hard time with their Semi-FI plans, with 15y expenses in the bank, and I just chose to say: Fuck it I'll start my own business, with about 7 years in the bank. I don't know if I'm insane, arrogant, or brave, but it has piqued my curiosity because there are so many different ways of viewing a situation, and the things we choose to focus on, wildly colors how we perceive a situation.
[1] Incidentally: the same neuroplasticity is screwing me over at the moment. I'm almost solely reading and writing in Danish and my language is slowly reverting away from English. And I can feel, literally feel, the difference. My Danish vocabolary has changed over the last couple of months in response to this monolanguage situation I've gotten myself into. It's quite illuminating to observe neuroplasticity on a first hand basis, and on such a short time scale.
[2] Okay that joke's old now...