It seems like I’m chasing success as a way to become significant, but even success can’t guarantee that. There are thousands of people who have made more money than I ever will who no one remembers at all.

Right now I’m on a walk around the neighborhood block, stuffed with turkey, mashed potatoes and rolls. I finished eating a few minutes before my friends at our Friendsgiving, and just realized I hadn’t written yet today. So I’m writing on my phone as I walk, rounding the first corner, hoping to be done by the time I finish one lap.

We create logical explanations for why interactions and situations went the way they did. But what guides the entire understanding we construct is the simple, base level experience. 

What if you could dedicate two weeks each year to doing whatever you wanted to do? Could you use those two weeks to learn a new skill? Or enjoy music? Or read up on a new field you’re interested in? What if you could use them to start a business? Or network with people you want to get to know?

I’m often tempted to unload a dump truck of advice on people whenever we start talking about marketing, morning routines, productivity, and social media. It’s my first instinct! I’ve been working on stopping that reaction, and I’ve been trying to trade it for listening more often. Here are a couple tips I have on being a better listener:

I definitely want to get better at automating my business and life, but here are a few things I’ve been successful in automating for myself and others already:

Kim does bookkeeping for small businesses to help them stay on top things when tax season comes around. She also teaches students and older folks how to keep their finances straight. Kim doesn’t have a website, she doesn’t have a professional email, and she doesn’t run any ads. But her business is doing fine. 

When I’m late for something, even if it’s a casual lunch with a group of friends (the most low-risk event of all), I feel important, like I’m going to be missed, or like my friends can’t start without me. I feel like if I’m late, my friends are going to be mad at me. I feel nervous, I feel like the stakes around the event are raised, even when they’re really not.

When I get stressed out, it happens like this:  I’m working hard on something and time is running out. And then all of a sudden,  I remember another thing I have to do that I totally forgot about.

I knew a day like today would come when I set out to blog every day in November. Nine days in a row has felt pretty good so far. So good that I was just telling someone last night that it hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. Today’s the first hard day.

When motivation runs dry, how do you keep going? When the goal you’re working toward reveals itself to be much further away than you thought, how do you keep stacking bricks anyway? How do you embody consistency in the times when consistency gets so hard?

I placed a lot of self-worth in whether or not I was “making it”. The number of people in the crowd, streams on Spotify, and emails back from network connections were everything to me. Since I was doing it to be famous, my motivation was external instead of internal. Since graduating college, I’ve started chasing a career in creative marketing. Recently, this has pushed me to create content in order to connect with people in my tribe and expand my network. So now, the purpose of this content is to bring value to other people. And it has changed everything

The cars we drive, the music we listen to, the phones we use, and the drinks we order are all avenues for us to evolve and change. They all help us become who we want to be.

I’ve been doing some resetting recently. Building the city of your dreams requires diligent daily brick stacking. But sometimes I get so focused on stacking those bricks that the original vision of the city starts to get foggy.

If a client I have decides they’re “too busy” to complete my invoice, I can see the situation two ways. I can conclude that I had lost control, see myself as the victim, and conclude I’m someone who’s not worth paying. However, a better choice would be to realize that I’m totally in control of my response to the situation! I can change my approach, call the client on the phone, and add a short signed agreement in my next gig.

Whenever someone at a party asks me what I do for work, I rarely know what to say. I do a lot of things. I work for Jeremiah Davis helping him produce videos, I run social media ads for businesses, I talk shop with freelancers and entrepreneurs in my IGTV series, I write copy and create websites. So when someone asks me what I do, I spin the wheel of options around in my brain until I land on the one they seem most interested by.

If someone with unlimited money had a problem that only you could solve, how much would you charge them to solve it?

Some days I feel great. I have energy, and an optimistic outlook. I can make decisions. Other days I feel bad. I’m kind of sluggish, I see things through a negative lens. I’m nervous about the choices I make. Do you know what the difference is between those days?

In March of 2017, I was enjoying a sunny day, waltzing through a small list of tasks. Then I got an unexpected email from a friend. CC’d on that email was a guy named Taylor, who was looking for Facebook ads for a new product launch. We sent a few emails back and forth over the next 15 minutes, then we jumped on a call. After chatting for 5 minutes, Taylor asked what I was up to and invited me to swing by the office right then. 

When I started college as a Freshman, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be there. I hadn’t declared a major, I didn’t have any specific aspirations, and I had too many interests to pick any path. People around me flaunted their majors and talked grad school goals, while I debated leaving. Slowly, school became more interesting as I got into it, and by my Junior year I was sitting in the front row of my favorite professors’ classes, taking vigorous notes.