🖤🖤🖤

 

 

Bet you didn’t know I’ve been in prison, First name / friend?

 

Quite a few times actually.

 

Served a 29-year sentence for Inhumane Dieting.

 

While serving a parallel sentence for CrossFit Torture. (not the methodology's fault - my own) 

 

Then the tables turned and I was held hostage by the American Immigration System.

 

Which overlapped with my 10-year sentence called Working For Someone Else.

 

But the real kicker was when I chose to represent myself at my parole hearing, got released, founded Brave Thing, and then… ENDED UP TURNING MY BUSINESS INTO PRISON.

 

I’m being dramatic.

 

Brave Thing never felt like a prison.

 

No one ever steals my lunch here!

 

But I’m always mirroring ONE THING to my clients when they start talking about systems of oppression they have no control over as “the reason” why they aren't feeling too luminous.

 

The usual suspects -

 

This is what I tell them:

 

All that might be true.

 

AND YOU ARE NO VICTIM.

 

You’re never truly passive in these experiences, First name / friend.

 

The ways “You” (beliefs, stories, identity, unhealed shit, condition etc.) interact with these systems means You often end up embodying the system of oppression, long after you “quit” or “leave.”

 

And I know this because I did exactly that!

 

LOVE A VICTIM MODE.

 

 

Well, Victim Mode was me in the first few years of Brave Thing.

 

To be fair, when you start a business, and you're smart but also clueless, you’re just trying to be brave and get some spaghetti to stick.

 

But I quit my creative director job where I hated NOTHING MORE than back-to-back meetings and working until 5pm (I know it’s not even that late but it feels very late for this early bird that catches worms) only to find myself in 6 hours of back-to-back coaching calls most day.

 

And it didn’t matter that the women I was coaching were fascinating and cool creatures.

 

Bright. Smart. Curious.

 

They were everything you’d want in a client.

 

I’m lucky that way. 

 

The women I tend to attract like that I'm 50% blunt, instrument 50% marshmallow, throw in a side of breathwork, and I don't care how many times you say Fuck.

 

How great is that!?

 

Many of these women remain clients and friends are are descending on Boston in February!

 

But 6 hours on Zoom a day coaching them?

 

That is a LOT of presence.

 

A LOT of holding of “The Space.”

 

And that takes A LOT of energy.

 

I loved the work.

 

My clients got great results.

 

But it started to feel really hard on my body and soul.

 

(Yes, I believe you have one too!)

 

Since I quit prison when I was 29, I’ve never worked the weekends.

 

But when I was on the 6-calls-a-day-grind it wasn't uncommon for me to spend my weekends RECOVERING from All That Presence.

 

It's nice to be able to choose if you want to take a 4 hour nap or not, know what I mean?

 

Also, I was born many similar soul and DNA strands as my dad, which express as the same weapons and wands in our lives.

 

I grew up with him either trapped behind his office door or sleeping all Sunday. 

 

And I will never forget the look on my baby sister's face when we were out hiking on the Isle of Skye, my dad collapsed and grabbed his chest, my brother had to run a mile back to the road to try to wave down a sheep farmer.

 

And I just sat there with wee Heather and told her not to look.

 

So.

 

I realized quick that I was going to burn out and fall out of love with my work if I was standing in an office for 7+ hours a day.

 

Guess how many calls I had on my calendar in 2022, First name / friend

?

 

507.

 

You might think that’s nothing, or A Lot.

 

I can tell you it was A Lot for me.

 

 

Last December, I gave myself some creative constraints.

 

What would it look like to continue to support clients and, ideally, maintain my revenue, but not be chained to Zoom?

 

Here’s what I did -

 

 

I noticed that my Mirror (private) clients really didn’t need to have weekly calls with me. I removed them completely and made my private coaching voice-note based, which is how I've worked with my mentor for 2+ years.

 

Voice-note coaching is simple: we chat consistently throughout the week via short asynchronous voice-notes. You leave me a message. I get back to you within a few hours with An Honest Reflection. We riff back and forth. You make pivots in real-time rather than storing everything up for a weekly call. 

 

It works SO WELL for self-led women (the only kind of woman I want to work with in close proximity)

 

I also love voice-note coaching because I can walk outside while I do it. CYA DESK.

 

 

I realized that private breathwork sessions were really Not Necessary for most people. Group sessions are just as powerful and a chance for more people to experience breathwork at a lower investment.

 

Plus, there's stuff I teach literally everyone I work with. 

 

I wanted to start laying down my body of work. 

 

I believe the Fancy People call this Intellectual Property.

 

It’s a priority of mine for my work to be accessible.

 

Co-founding the breathwork app, Soul, starting my private podcast, Hidden Gems, and creating my signature program, Muck+Gold, made that possible.

 

 

 

I LOVE and BELIEVE in the power of long-term commitments.

 

I've also run my business long enough to learn that Recurring Revenue is the love language of a regulated nervous system! 

 

So last January I launched my mentorship group, Luminous.

 

It's for women who want to both live a brave life, want direct coaching from me, AND like to be around women prioritizing the same thing for a full year. I’ve loved seeing the bonds form.

 

Luminous totally transformed my business. In year one, the program became a 6-figure business on her own!

 

 

I just counted how many calls I had on my calendar this year.

 

196.

 

That’s a LOT LESS than 507.

 

And, guess what?

 

I got to support WAY MORE WOMEN this year through Muck+Gold, Hidden Gems, and Soul.

 

Brave Thing revenue was stable (it actually increased a bit: I’ll talk through that a bit more in the Financial Dirt session - dates announced next week)

 

My point with all this?

 

Wealth.

 

Health.

 

Success.

 

Impact.

 

YOU get to define what that means for you.

 

I want everyone to win at Brave Thing.

 

I want the women I work with to remember who the fuck they are and burn really bright and and brave in their life.

 

I feel so confident helping them with that.

 

I also know I've got to be feeling luminous if I want to be as generous as possible with the presence and creativity I bring to their lives when we work together.

 

AND I can only do that if I’m practicing what I try not to PREACH, but share with conviction:

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t afford to burn out.

 

So, Brave Thing grows at the speed that my body and nervous system can handle.

 

I will not build Brave Thing in unsustainable ways.

 

That’s not wealthy, healthy, brave or luminous!

 

I already served 29 years in prison for Abandoning Me.

 

I will not do it again.

 

 

P.S. Dare you to count how many Zoom call you did this year! And if you don't like the number, do something about it!

 

Missed my Brave Thing Truth Telling Era this week? Check out this week's emails!

 

 

 

 

If you’d like a peak behind the scenes of how I build this imperfect, Brave, and beautiful Thing, you want to be there.

 

If you want to know where I made brilliant business-changing moves, while simultaneously throwing gobs of money down the actual toilet, you want to be there.

 

And if you want to understand some of the inner mucking about I do consistently to create the self-image needed to build a business I am equal parts frustrated, proud and joy-filled about, sign up for the waitlist here.

 

Financial Dirt will be donation-based.

 

My goal is raise enough money to cover an annual membership for a girl at my jiu-jitsu gym.

 

Oh, and tell your friends. 

 

If you forward this shit to a woman in your life who doesn't know Brave Thing exists but would probs get a lot of out it, I'd really appreciate it.