Workpost 66: Mixed Feelings

Recently I’ve been feeling immense pressure with the sensation that I’m somehow running out of time.

I feel a lot of frustration and anger in my chest.

I feel like I have no time anymore to work on the projects, and making progress in my own WordPress. I feel burning rage and frustration in my chest and stomach.

It might be the I am out of control wound.

I’m really angry at myself for procrastinating and not being able to get anything done.

Today I did come up with a really cool idea for an AI benchmark for:

1. Creative writing
2. Problem solving
3. Research
4. Contracts

I also feel overwhelmed. I feel like there is so much work to do, I don’t know where to start. I am overwhelmed. I am not able to deal with it.

I have a lot of projects I’m working on and it is scary to feel that I don’t know how to handle that.

I feel pressure because there are all difficult challenges that are important to me.

I failed big at succeeding in them…I’m so proud of myself!

This is a good thing. To fail big is to learn big.

The lessons are slowly being revealed.

The first question is…what did I need when I was in the overwhelmed state?

Well, I needed to feel the feelings, to be ok with just processing first.

After feeling the feelings to the fullest, what I need next is to find the courage in myself to face the challenge. To remember that I’m capable of anything.

And after feeling embracing the challenge, thinking tactically how I want to face it, and specifically, what small steps I want to take.

I want to take everything that I know as a small task and add it to my todolist. We will start there.

It’s been a few days after my deadline of September 12th.

I haven’t created business cards for my art coaching business. I haven’t learned the principles of javascript or front-end development or created a game.

The other day a friend was asking me about how to start a side gig and I had so much to tell him, yet these days I’m feeling a bit down and undermotivated.

A few realizations are perking me up a little.

Realization 1: My coaching program is not overvalued.

I want to charge $25,000 per year for my coaching program to help someone create a masterpiece. Before even pitching it to anyone, I felt like this was too big of an ask, I should lower my rates etc.

But as I thought about it deeper a few things occurred to me:

• I will be spending a lot of time with a client. I plan on spending 2 hr every other week with clients on formal coaching sessions, but that’s not it. My entire professional attention and all my skills are aimed at helping my clients succeed. So outside of formal coaching sessions (in person if I can manage it). I will be taking calls emails, and setting up times to do virtual sessions. My goal is not to be a doctor you see for checkups or an art class you regularly go to. My goal is to understand your art inside and out, and be a true partner, mentor, strategist, and guide in your process. I think $25,000 for a year is an absolute crazy steal for that.
• I’m not focused on getting clients that are poorer or don’t really have the funds. That would be both unethical and a bad fit. I already offer another class that can satisfy that demographic of people where it is more like a regular class, albeit a somewhat vetted and serious class (and not serious at the same time). I’m focused on the people who have the money and the passion to back it up, and we can spend some time to do something special. For someone retired with several millions of dollars, this will be nothing to them as long as they want it enough.

Realization 2: The process is complicated, but I have my blog

The whole point of this blog is be a place where I can incrementally work on works of progress and get better at things over time, instead of getting the final version all at once. If I don’t use this blog, I can also use my google drive, google docs, and slides to draft out things step by step and track overall progress in the blog.

Here are some more ideas furnished by Claude:

I have a business called epiphany AI group. It’s main aim is to take a business that has the potential to move humanity forwards and removes it’s blocks. I want to develop some questions, exercises, and processes that help me get into the right consulting mindset that is in line with my company with the sense of anything is possible, positivity, seeking innovation, and purpose. brainstorm some ideas for me

Thank you for sharing about your business, Epiphany AI Group. It sounds like an innovative approach to consulting with a focus on transformative potential. Here are some ideas for questions, exercises, and processes to help you get into the right consulting mindset aligned with your company’s values:

Questions:

1. What would this business look like if all limitations were removed?
2. How can we reframe perceived obstacles as opportunities?
3. What emerging technologies or trends could revolutionize this industry?
4. If we were to start from scratch today, how would we design this business?
5. What’s the most audacious goal this company could set for itself?

Exercises:

1. Reverse Brainstorming: Identify ways to make the business fail, then reverse these ideas.
2. Future Retrospective: Imagine it’s 5 years from now and the company has achieved incredible success. What steps did we take to get there?
3. Random Word Association: Choose a random word and find ways to connect it to the business, sparking innovative ideas.
4. Mindfulness Meditation: Practice mindfulness to clear your mind before consulting sessions.
5. Empathy Mapping: Create detailed empathy maps for various stakeholders to gain new perspectives.

Processes:

1. “Moonshot Thinking” Sessions: Regular brainstorming focused on game-changing ideas.
2. Innovation Pipeline: Develop a systematic approach to capture, evaluate, and implement new ideas.
3. Cross-Industry Inspiration: Regularly explore innovations in unrelated industries for fresh perspectives.
4. Purposeful Reflection: Schedule time to align business strategies with broader humanitarian goals.
5. Constraint Removal Exercise: Systematically identify and challenge assumed constraints in the business model.

Would you like me to elaborate on any of these ideas or explore a specific area further?

can you explain empathy mapping?

Certainly, I’d be happy to explain empathy mapping.

Empathy mapping is a collaborative visualization tool used to gain a deeper understanding of a stakeholder’s (often a customer’s or user’s) experience. It’s designed to help teams better understand the needs, thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the people they’re designing for or working with. This process encourages teams to consider a person’s complete experience, going beyond just their obvious actions or statements.

A typical empathy map is divided into four quadrants, each representing a different aspect of a person’s experience:

1. Says: What the person says out loud in an interview or during an observed experience.
2. Thinks: What the person might be thinking but not explicitly saying.
3. Does: The actions and behaviors the person takes.
4. Feels: The emotions the person might be feeling.

Additionally, two more sections are often added: 5. Pains: Frustrations, obstacles, or risks the person experiences. 6. Gains: Wants, needs, hopes and dreams of the person.

To create an empathy map:

1. Define the user or stakeholder you’re mapping.
2. Gather data through interviews, observations, or existing research.
3. Fill in each section of the map with relevant insights.
4. Review the map as a team to identify patterns and generate insights.

In the context of your business, Epiphany AI Group, you might use empathy mapping to:

• Understand the mindset of business leaders you’re consulting for.
• Explore the perspectives of various stakeholders within a client’s organization.
• Gain insights into the end-users or customers of your client’s products or services.

By using empathy mapping, you can uncover hidden needs, motivations, and pain points that might not be immediately obvious. This can lead to more innovative and effective solutions, aligning well with your company’s goal of removing blocks and moving humanity forward.

Would you like more information on how to implement empathy mapping in your consulting process?

Some more ideas that I came up with:

What customer do I want to fall in love with
Meditate for the answer
Write a time capsule
Body exercise emotion from motion
I don’t let my mind run me I let my heart and soul run me

I felt that something was missing today. I felt like I has a lot of pieces of the puzzle, but I was missing something from stitching the whole thing together.

I realized that the thing I cannot lose sight of, that will help create boundaries and structure for the project is to remind myself what the deliverables are:

1. Create a working funnel where money goes in -> money comes out
2. Create the “rulebook” that will allow anyone run the funnel
3. Set up the funnel

With that in mind, here is the timeline:

1. Week 1: Create the Future Package
   • Goal: Create a package of branding, website, mission and vision, and other visuals and documents that can bring me and anyone else into the correct future
2. Week 2: Create the Recruitment Package
   • Goal: Create a leads magnet that can get attract a buttload of leads and sell the future
3. Week 3: Create a Conversion Package
   • Goal: Create an offer that will allow us to incorporate our customers into the future
4. Week 4: Execute and innovate
   • Goal: automate, innovate, and make the process more fun, optimized and exciting