So things have been interesting recently. I have a lot of outlets in which to express my thoughts in: Instagram, video, blog post, journal, and slack channel. I don’t know where to post what. But I recently realized that I am taking my blog waaay too seriously. This blog is meant to be a place where I am boldly myself, but also giving me a staging ground to work things out, not come up with the final product. It is my place to draft out ideas, write poems about how I feel, try out videos that I’m not yet ready to publish. It is a place where I’m being unafraidly myself.
With that being said, I wanted to work out some of my thoughts with Instagram on this blog post. I have three Instagram accounts with an idea for a fourth one:
personal account
art account
coaching account
+ valorant account.
I’m going to take a stab at dividing purpose of different outlets:
Instagram – personal
Place to relax and talk to friends
Ask for help, suggestions
Practice challenges
Instagram – art
Place to work on art
Build worlds, characters
Find beauty
Ask about works in progress
Instagram – coaching
Place to remind myself different life lessons
Homepage for coaching, where I direct everyone
Write down what helps me reconnect with art
Instagram – valorant
Place to create training videos for myself to become the best
Reclaim mental
I don’t really know what the purpose of the slack channel is as current. Perhaps I can use it as a place to repost things that I post in different areas.
Okok. After working on my AI Consulting Plan for a few days, something is really fucking clear to me (excuse my French).
I need more than 10 days to make a name for myself. I am going to need 3 months. Videos are the absolute best way to make a name for myself. However, videos take absolutely forever to create.
So let us give us enough time to make them.
Goal: Be known, give preview of consulting
UNIT ONE (1 month): Build a crowd who will engage with anything I put out
Shoot 3 simple videos
Shoot 3 complex videos
Write 6 LinkedIn posts
Involve people every step of the way
UNIT TWO (1 month): Get people to start reaching out to me with AI questions
Create reaction videos to comments
Create videos based off on comments
UNIT THREE 1 month): Get big enough following to invite famous people on my videos
Figure out the platform I can get big on
Post on it consistantly
BONUS (1 day): Look for automation/outsourcing, try to make as low effort as possible
Ok let’s dive in deeper.
UNIT ONE (1 month ends March 22nd)
Planning and setting up artifacts for videos (10 days ends March 2nd)
Executing, shooting and editing (10 days ends March 12th)
Feedback and editing for bigger videos (10 days ends March 22nd)
And even deeper….
UNIT ONE | Part 1 Planning and setting up artifacts for videos (10 days ends March 2nd)
Create plans for each of the videos (4 days ends Feb 25th)
What videos I want to shoot (already done)
What those videos will look like in the intro (partly done)
What clips I need
What research I need
Who I need to talk to
When I need it by – figure out shooting schedule
How to break down each of the ideas into smaller content
Figure out how to shoot each video (3 days ends Feb 28th)
Break down as much of the video as I can
If needed, come up with an imaginary best case scenario story just to know what shots I need
Solidify shooting schedule
Reach out to the people I need to reach out to
Shoot preliminary non-essential parts of video (3 days ends March 2nd)
Shoot any part that I can that don’t require other people
As Alex Hormozi said (or am I just saying this?) everyone needs to know sales. Because sales lead to money and everyone needs money. If you don’t know how to sell, then you end up working for someone who does.
Before I try out the leads techniques on my coaching business, I am using it for my AI company.
And for that company, I’ve been feeling extreme pressure and stress around talking to my warm and lukewarm or cold leads.
I’ve processed some of these emotions and came up with some of a process:
Accept that I cannot control how someone sees me and even if I could, I don’t want to. Everyone’s mind and thoughts are sacred and my freedom is sacred as well. Both would be violated if I were to control how people saw me because I have to put on a mask and deceive people.
If I’m not trying to control people then the point is just to engage with my network. Talk to people, have a good time, make some jokes.
Anyone who doesn’t respond is an opportunity to process my feelings around rejection because that is the most important thing to me – not trying to change their mind.
The other part of this equation that I still am scratching my head about is delivering fast and big value. Alex talks about that but I don’t know what that value means, and I don’t know if I am allowed to give away things. I need to think about it some more and come up with some ideas. Perhaps my time can be split between developing value and content and reaching out.
I’ve been thinking of way to provide people value and the only thing I can really think of is having some time with me.
Maybe one way to think about it is I need to establish myself as an AI expert or someone with a lot of prior success. Perhaps one helpful detail is that I’ve worked with companies where we saw a 10x increase in efficiency in specific areas.
Maybe it would be helpful to show them the website as well for use cases or a list of ideas for their specific area.
This morning I feel damn tired. And I feel stressed.
I know I have to pack my bags for home, check into my flight, and cook all the raw food in the fridge.
I also want to play more Valorant since I never have time for more than 2 or 3 games without interrupting my bedtime. I finally placed an alt account in Silver 1 and I’m loving it, not having to think very hard, just play for the fun of it.
I would also love to work on my French challenge and spend some time with the mimic technique. I was thinking last night about using connection theory to understand what it would take to think in French, instead of just being really good at translating in my head from English to French and the answer that came to me is that I just need to mimic a lot of French speakers, and not just mimic what they say, but how they say it.
Also, for today, right after my morning run, I would like to continue and finish my next section of my VOD review and perhaps plan out some posts for my art coach Instagram.
Just came back from my run and I have to say, I want to be out there more. A walk out in the world is a wonderful way to think through stuff.
A Sacred Thing
The biggest disservice that they did me
Was getting me onto the ideal of controlling
How others feel about me
Because controlling how others feel
Puts ME into a cage as well
The mask of their surface wants
Is forced upon my face
And I would trade my freedom
For their approval any day
I think, as I walk past people
That how someone feels about you
Is a sacred thing
There is no need to change how they feel about us
Just as much as we can seek to understand not control our own feelings
I saw an ad on Facebook. It was talking about making money as an introvert and making money without giving up your inner peace.
I immediately signed up. It was about 20 dollars.
Now I have done a bunch of the exercises for the prework of the challenge and here are my reflections.
Some major questions that I have right now:
What am I willing to give up and how will I go about giving it up?
How do I live my values every day in a way that is in flow and not forced or mechanical?
I have some initial ideas.
First, I was thinking originally about what I wanted to give up in terms of things like YouTube, or socializing. But recently it made a lot more sense for me to think about time. Specifically, I wanted to dedicate my entire morning to succeeding at these goals.
From the time I wake up, I usually am doing what JT Franco calls “buffalo brain” (the idea of being one of the herd that moves without thinking). I listen to audiobooks, and watch YouTube videos. I don’t eat breakfast or drink water. I keep the blinds closed. I feel awful and I don’t feel the feelings.
Someone once said (might be Melinda Gates) that the first few hours of the day are the most important because they set the stage for the entire day to come. If I want to give up anything, I want to give up my mornings to getting up, drinking water, feeling my body, and going downstairs into the lounge to write on my blog and work on achieving my dreams.
Middle of the day has to be reserved for work and for talking to my girlfriend. End of the day has to be reserved for me time. Being alone, taking time, creating art, and letting the magic of nighttime take over.
This is what I’m thinking roughly:
7/8 AM – 9/10 AM: Dedicated to living the magical life
9/10 AM – 12 PM: Dedicated to doing the impossible at work
12 PM – 1/2 PM: Lunch, meditation
1/2 PM – 5 PM: Work, performing at the highest levels
5 PM – 7 PM: Misc time
7 PM – 11 PM: Alone time, creativity, play
During the weekend, work will be removed, leaving more time for dedication to my magical life. I think it will look something like this:
7/8 AM – 12 PM: Dedicated to living the magical life
12pm – 7 PM: Misc time
7 PM – 11 PM: Alone time, creativity, play
With this balance, it seems that my breakdown is this:
Weekday
1-3 hours per day on living magical life
5-7 hours of work
4 hours of alone-time/play
2 hours of miscellaneous time
Weekend
4-5 hours per day on living magical life
4 hours of alone-time/play
7 hours of miscellaneous time
I suspect, I will have to do careful planning during the weekend, in order to perform at the absolute highest levels of work and potentially spend less time there.
In terms of living out my beliefs of empathy, intuition/following feelings, creativity/imagination, and honesty. I’m not entirely sure what actions I need to take to feel that I am in congruence with my values.
My main thought right now is about taking risks, breathing through difficult emotions and sensations, and following connection theory.
Start with purpose, later you manage purpose not employees
Delay gratification
Culture has to be client centric
Hacking luck is about persistence
Taking risk increases luck
How to deal with failure
Don’t let things own you
Do not let short term ego go (enjoy looking like a loser)
Learn to embrace getting a D
Take your time
Don’t ask yourself what you will do when you grow up, ask yourself what problem you want to solve
Write down in detail what person you are looking for in a cofounder
Opposite of what you love to do
Same moral code
Post it everywhere
Sell the sizzle, not the steak
Build sales relationship
Do they need you?
Do you like them?
Marketing is about experimenting and connecting with people over time
Marketing is all about the process and the system
Marketing is about having fun
Write press release like its the actual story, do all the work for the journalist (high res photos)
Lean into marketing for other brands you like and they can lead to brand sponsorship
Something I was thinking about in this video is how I love challenges, but I don’t like failures. But maybe the most important thing to do, or a really good outcome for a challenge is failure, and I can focus on failure if I want to. I think maybe a big part of failure, is unexpected outcomes. It isn’t important that you didn’t succeed at what you originally went for, but how you grew in the process of trying and discovering what unexpected things were on the other side.
The cofounder part is also really interesting in writing down what I want so I can recognize someone when I see them.
Sales relationships makes me think about reaching out with all my goals and involving people on a journey because that is the thing that interests me the most, it is the thing that I can connect with people on very easily and naturally.
Marketing is making me think that failure might also be about the story you can tell afterwards. The story is not about success, it is about the exciting hook and premise. Failure is one of the most interesting ends to a story, although it can be depressing.