WC 014: Taking a Brief Pause

This 14th issue of the Wizard’s chest marks the start of my “spring break”, which is something I’ve been looking forward to for almost three years now, since the start of the pandemic.

Coming off an incredible Q1 and our second cohort of Automated Intimacy, I’ll be hitting pause temporarily on these regular weekly emails, as well as regular tweets and social media.

I’m also taking a step back from most of the normal “day to day” routines of running the business.

Instead I’ll be spending time in nature, making space for reflection, and reconnecting with friends in Costa Rica.

Here are just a few of the people I'm excited to spend time "in real life" with (and whose work you'd be well served to get to know):

Rodolfo Carillo

Julie Pham

Shanti Yaniv

Ed Zaydelman

I'll be leaning into wonder, and letting creativity and curiosity fully run the show for a bit.

I’m feeling super grateful to have business structures that allow for this time away, and I’m also aware that this is a privileged position to be in.

That being said, I truly believe that creating space like this can be one of the single most important decisions you can make for the long-term sustainability of your business.

It doesn’t have to be for an entire month, even a few days away can be revitalizing. What’s most important is the intentionality of setting the time aside, and how it is spent.

It can be scary to pull yourself away, especially when we never quite feel things are where we want them to be. That being said, I’ve consistently been able to tie my biggest business upgrades back to my time spent away in retreat.

Since the start of the pandemic, one of my coping mechanisms to all the uncertainty has been to put my head down and “just keep working”.

I’ve essentially not taken any meaningful time off since 2020.

Not to say that my body and mind haven’t needed it. I’ve been forced to stop a few times along the way.

But nothing planned with true intentionality.

And I can feel the impact of that.

Even if you have a work reality that you love, I believe it’s important to allow your mind and body to rest. This allows you to come back fresh, with new creative perspective, and ready to take on your next big challenge.

Often we can get a bit numb to the intensity of life happening around us.

It’s hard to achieve clarity when things feel heavy.

It’s not until we hit pause that we can see things with fresh eyes, and make the next best decision on how we want to move forward powerfully.

We all have things going on inside of us that require the space to breathe.

For me, its preparing for what may be a necessary surgery in the coming months, and making peace with that. I’ve barely given myself time to process some of the health updates I’ve received in the past couple of months.

It’s also working with the part of me that still feels afraid every time I push the send button on one of these newsletters about how it will be received.

The stories of how I might be judged.

Or the part of me that gets light-headed every time I speak publicly, even though it’s a challenge I continue to push myself to take on more of in my life.

It’s creating space to fully embrace the dietary changes I’ve taken on as part of my spiritual practices.

Taking a break from coffee.

I tried last month, but mostly failed miserably, in spite of my best declared intentions.

And so much more.

So that’s what I’ll be doing.

How will that look?

I’m taking a full 10 days off at the start of the trip, where I’m completely withdrawing from work and social media.

Following this, I’ll be working remotely for two weeks, but only on creative projects, and at less than quarter speed.

Dialing the intensity down to about a 2 out of 10.

Followed by another 5 days of complete rest before heading back home.

So that’s the plan.

Autoresponder on.

Newsletter paused.

I thought about scrambling to queue up some emails for while I'm gone, but then realized that would be a scarcity play. I trust the right people will still be here when I return, and maybe you'll enjoy the spaciousness of a few less emails in the meantime :)

So here's wishing you an amazing continuance of the spring season.

I leave you with this contemplation:

What can you do this week to plant the seeds of ritual, environment, and relationship that support your own growth?

Sending continued love.

See you May 13th :)

Here's What I Want to Share This Week:

1. CTC Critical Mindset Shift #1:Your Copy is the X-Factor.
   If you thought your marketing (which really means your copy) was important last year, then I'm not sure how anything can rank higher in an even more digital world.
   
   Everyone’s online.
   
   That gym owner who got shutdown is now selling online fitness programs.
   
   The salesperson at that boutique fashion shop is now selling her services as an “online stylist for busy entrepreneurs”.
   
   Your neighbor down the street. The one who was teaching high school algebra and didn’t even know how to turn on her MacBook without harassing the Genius Bar, now has a Yeti mic, a pro Zoom account and an online course selling gluten free pizza recipes to families who’ll sadly never know what real crust tastes like. (weep for them).
   
   In an increasingly saturated online world, copy becomes your best and only defense.
   
   It’s the last samurai in your war against mediocre marketing.
   
   And one you oughta gain outcome-based mastery over before glutenous crust goes extinct.

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Here’s what we’ll be covering:

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• How to use Automated Intimacy for higher (and more engaged) webinar show-ups.
• The Post-Webinar Profit Maximizer to help bump webinar conversions by up to 35%.

It’s the first time we’ve taught this material in a “summit setting”.

And in truth…

We stretched the limits of the “format” to give as much practical value (and high level insight) as humanly possible.

If you’ve yet to dive into “Automated Intimacy’ with us before…

This will be your most practical and accessible intro to the topic.

Who We are Celebrating This Week: Julie Pham

I met Julie for the first time around 2017 when I was holding a retreat in Costa Rica for hearing docs through my work with Hearing Experts Alliance.

She shared her teachings on intuition with our group, and all our guests couldn't get enough of the individual sessions she offered during our time together.

Over the years we've become good friends, and Janice and I will be spending time with her and her fiancé, Kevin (

congrats guys!), while we are in Costa Rica.

With this week's trip hot on my mind, I thought what better time to highlight the important work that Julie represents in the world.

Julie describes herself as a behavioral pattern expert, intuitive seer, and transformational teacher, but I love the way one of her student's recently shared her magic:

"She’s intuitive, sharp, experienced and full of heart. Julie unearthed mountains of layers in a pattern I've been working on for years after just a handful of sessions. Each time I would walk away with more understanding, compassion and reverence for myself and the path I’m here to forge. This isn’t some 3 step program. This is a partner in crime helping you understand why you operate the way you do and how to tend to the inner workings of your world so that your external experience shifts for the better. It’s the difference between forcing a band aid and peacefully liberating the root cause."

Grateful for our friendship, and the opportunity to celebrate and share her work with you!

Connect with Julie

This Week's Curiosities :

Never Take Notes on a Zoom Call Again (Link)

I've tried a few of these tools over the years, but Fathom is my current favorite for transcribing Zoom calls, and sharing highlights and notes with clients in an easy-to-digest format. I also like that you can search your transcripts across your client call library to find something you mentioned, but can't quite remember where you said it.

The "killer feature" that separates this tool from the several others that I have tried is this "button panel" that displays during your call:

Create with Play (Link)

Play advertises itself as the first native iOS design tool built for creating mobile products. I'm on the waitlist, so I haven't actually taken the product for a test-drive, but based on their demo video, this is something I'm excited to try:

Popsy (Link)

Turn your Notion pages into a website for free. OK - this is really fun. I've seen a few of these tools show up on my radar, but this was the first one I actually tried, and it's 100% free to create something like this. You can also add custom domains, and there are addition "pro" features you can unlock for a small monthly fee.

I created my example site in less than 5 minutes (I timed myself).

Here is another example of how you could create a simple course listings page.

Notion Automations Calendar Sync (Link)

If you can't tell, I'm on a Notion kick this week with my shares. This $5/month tool makes it drop-dead simple to 2-way sync your google calendar with Notion.

I've used this to create a meeting-note system that I absolutely love.

I've created a quick walkthrough video below of my system so you can see how it works in action:

Zunya (Link)

In the spirit of "taking a break", this is one of the locations I'll be visiting in the coming month. My good friend Ed turned me onto this beautiful retreat location on the southernmost tip of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.

Zunya promotes itself as a space for people to reconnect and deepen the bond with themselves, nature, and others.

In addition to taking personal time here, I'm also investigating the possibility of holding an entrepreneur's retreat here in 2023, or bringing Zen Habit's Fearless Mastery group here.

Any takers? :)

Memorable Quote:

"If we want to take our learning and our lives to the next level, we have to let go of that clinging to what we know.

Let yourself dive into the fear of change. Be willing to change everything. Be willing to embrace not knowing, a new view, being a beginner.

Be willing to embrace failure as a part of the process of learning and growing. Redefine failure, not knowing, so that you can’t wait to step into the unknown.

Seek out exposure to uncertainty. Seek to do things where you don’t know what you’re doing. Be open and public about your messiness, your commitments and your failures.

Obliterate what you know, to make room for what you might learn."

- Leo Babauta, Zen Habits

With appreciation,
​
Phil

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