So what about Instagram? Those are pictures.

LinkedIn? Maybe I say something pithy that doesn’t fit in there.

I help coaches + consultants:

A guy I saw on LinkedIn had a video called how to find your life's purpose in five minutes…

It was ten minutes long. 😅🧐

He talked to the happiest people in his town. They weren’t the richest people – who were reporting lots of family infighting and stress.

These theater people, they were history geeks, they were living with ups and downs – and didn't feel they'd wasted a minute.

He interviews them and finds that all of them can answer these questions:

And here's the thing to point out: 80% of that is for other people.

The speaker says it’s 60% but let’s be honest here –

Most people say “what you do” and think of work. Right? I'd say it's 80%.

People who know their lives purpose and find identity in how they serve others are happier.

But you know, if somebody asked me my life's purpose…

I don't know if I would give my elevator pitch.

How much does what you do for people, and the impact you have on them, overlap with what you believe your life's purpose to be?

I watched a couple episodes of House, and this guy is a lot less charming. I feel like I’m reading webcomic-type humor. You know, House dissecting everybody with le epic intellect.

When I watched this show as a kid, I always thought of these other characters as annoyances that got in the way of the action, but now I feel a different way.

Now… I feel for all of those characters a little more. Nobody wants to be trapped in the whims of some self-proclaimed supergenius.

In COMPLETELY UNRELATED NEWS, many of y’all have met me on Twitter but I’m trying to do more LinkedIn/Newsletter style content.

It feels a little melt-downy over there so I’m gonna try and diversify my bonds.

I love being able to write bite-sized little nuggets and then put my phone down for a week before any of that weird pollution infects my mind… but all of these engineers are gonna be out of work, I wanna make some new contacts.

And in the meantime, I’m sharing the most interesting things I learn during the week.

I’m working a lot and taking a lot of calls with people who want to improve this or that facet in their business.

So you can expect a lot of published material on personal development, lifestyle design, social media management, informed by whatever I’m really doing in the field.

Happy holidays. It’s always a good time to:

🎯 Work with new people

🤝 Accept more conversations

🚀 Make more connections:

✅ Publish on a schedule

It’s really simple: when you’re actually helping people and solving problems… the rewards from doing that flow naturally. You won’t always get that pat on the head the second you demand it, but it’ll come.

And listen, we don’t all know for sure what kind of stuff people are going to eventually fall in love with.

So as I work, I’m also experimenting with post-formats.

Short like a tweet, long form like a YouTube video, medium like a podcast?

I'm very (very) slowly making a new podcast.

In my experience, the best episodes are ones where there's research and time put into it.

Big secret from the world of podcasting – that first episode is usually the one that gets the most interaction. No matter what you make, people always go back and check out the first episode to see what it’s all about.

So I want to make sure that everything I publish has got some detailed notes and a sense of focus.

Not that I don’t love long conversations – but instead of doing deep dives with friends and contacts, I think I want to really cut to the chase…

With people that might be getting to know me for the first time.

i’m a millenial and there was always one guy who typed like this in every web forum.

and you respected that guy, he was very smart.

And because of that guy, I don’t sweat too much worrying

It’s a good time to talk about the newsletter format. What happened, why’d I choose it? And what went wrong?

Now when I get older, I find that advice I ignored actually paid off, but because now I’m boomer, I’m cringe, I’m mid – and as a pro poster, I still have to post.

Those people are so creative about the art they produce that it's incredible. And I can't tell you how many times I've impressed people by knowing something about like, the Vampire Diaries 😭🤣

It’s possible that as I start doing outreach for the holidays, I’ll start listening to everybody’s podcast – I have definitely had times that I do that.

The ones I like, I do put in a folder so that in six months, I can say “hey, i remember your podcast”

But come on. We don’t all listen to each others podcasts! hate to break it to ya.

You don’t need to enslave yourself to business content, but you should at least care enough to sit down seven times during the week and say “hey, i want to work on that and reflect about it later”

Invest a couple of hours of well directed time a week into yourself.

The goal is that if I do this long enough, I’m going to find somebody who is fanatically interested in me and how I work and they’ll want to fit me in.

I personally don’t want to spend the next run of my career explaining what I do or how it benefits people, so having all this right at hand is the way forward.

You’d better have it explained exactly the way you want it done.

And I also like to look back at things I’ve already written in the past. What can I improve on or touch up or make more relevant.

The body follows the mind.

But look, your mind? 🧠 Can accomplish incredible things. 🤌🏾

So many of the people that get on calls with me are dealing with disability.

People who are dealing with physical limits on their body get really good at coming up with hard deadlines for work and for progress.

Having a strong body/mind connection is so important. 🧘🏾‍♀️

Everything that you’re experiencing in human society is the result of somebody’s idea.

It built up in slow motion in response to the pressures of rest of the world, and now it’s here.

I don't think the idea of human agency and willpower is STRICTLY related to your brain function.

But hey, having your mind in better shape would be a good thing, right?

You know that you need to break a sweat a few times a week.

Do you know you need to think in an ordered manner and stretch your brain, too? Start thinking about:

🔸New languages 🔸New skills 🔸New concepts and tasks 🔸New situations

📌 Even engaging with new situations when they pop up can help you. So here are a couple of puzzles.

😵 1. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him underwater for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him.

But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can that happen?

😵 2. You are in a place called Wally’s World and there is only one law.

There is a mirror, but no reflection. There is pizza with cheese, but not sausage. There is pepper, but no salt. There is a door, yet no entrance or exit.

What is the law?

If these didn't wrinkle your brain at all, congrats. 🤔

I love when people have links to Calendly or TidyCal or Acuity or whatever.

Sometimes I’m proactive and book myself to talk to people.

But I've never been into attending conferences in person.

I love taking to people, but when I travel I like to think about people and not groups of people. 😬

But as far as this online stuff gooooes – yeah, you can catch me online anywhere.

I know a lot of people in coaching look for media outlets to cover their brand.

First of all, those are good “trust markers” when you’re introducing a digital product or course to someone who doesn't live online.

Second, you might be trying to restle a blue check mark out of Instagram, a soap opera that lasts you months.

Most startups arent regularly doing things that are “newsworthy” – you know, useful, groundbreaking, scandalous?

You're mostly touching spreadsheets and something cool happens once every three months.

But look for ways to do it yourself.

Behind the scenes pictures, documentary content, audio podcasts.

A lot of this is going to be used internally or be in some nebulous place to use later –

You'll eventually run into somebody that knows what to do with your documentary content.

$400,000 in testimonials? You don't get it unless you ask. I've set up testimonial campaigns with huge results – here are the main things I learned:

So here are some thoughts on building that kind of social proof.

So, some are better than others. The quality of the testimonial is all in the prompt.

If you tell people to just “give their thoughts” it's going to suck. Just deciding to do it and making the time is plenty of mental word.

You know that idea of “know, like, and trust” – that applies to personal life, to business, to relationships – you name it and it's important.

The people who YOU know like and trust are important.

Just reach them – give them a link, ask them for it.

There are apps that take video and file it away, which is a lot easier than dealing with email attachments. Trust me.

Don't sweat too much about doing this when you're just getting started.

Ty Cohen used VideoPeel, I'm using this-

testimonials.to

🤔 Most of the people I've seen that really want to push it with testimonials already have large mailing lists and satisfied customers.

🧱 But you really want a wall of social proof when you're doing a big Facebook ads campaign.

You know what people really respond to?

🏧 Cash.

At KCF, they did regular drawings. We're talking about money, little technical gizmos like apple watches – and more. You have to go a long way to get that kind of pattern interrupt.

You can give away:

✏️ things you've written, 🏗️ resources you've made, 🎤 interviews you've done.

It's just a good idea to add some kind of incentive, if you've got a large list.

If it's smaller, you can probably get by with just being very nice to people.

It sucks to start with zero but with user generated content, it's best to stick it somewhere you know your best customers are going to be.

The first place I start is response sequences.

When you buy a course, you get automated training afterwards.

I email you with “extra” information & additional things that didn't quite make the scope of the class.

And I send a nice email that asks for your feedback. 😉

I help coaches + consultants: