Tag Archives: Announcements

Guild Course Update

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I finished working out the details for the upcoming Guild course on social alignment, so now I can give you a crisper update on that, including when we’ll get started.

We’ll be opening the doors for people to enroll early next week. I’d say by Tuesday. The course will officially begin one week from today, on Friday, April 1st, and it will run for 30 days straight.

Format-wise it’s a bit of a hybrid that combines the daily live lesson experience of Deep Abundance Integration with the social interactivity of the Amplify group calls. So it will be like an intensive 30-day challenge for anyone who wants to do it live.

Every day for 30 days in a row, from April 1 through April 30, I’ll be hosting a live Zoom call at 9am Pacific time. Each call will go for about 2-3 hours and will have a structured format that includes instruction, breakout rooms for interactive practice, Q&A, open sharing, and more.

The core theme of the course is creating and enjoying an aligned social circle. Each day we’ll chip off a piece of this to work on together, exploring a wide variety of subtopics.

Near the end of each call, we’ll have a co-creative segment to invite and consider suggestions for what to cover on the next day’s call. Then we’ll be able to pre-announce each day’s topic approximately 21 hours in advance. That way people who want to be selective can decide whether the next day’s topic appeals to them enough to attend live, or if they’d prefer to wait for the recording.

All of these calls (but not the breakout room segments) will be recorded, and each recording will be published the same day as the live lesson. Recordings will be streamable in your browser and also downloadable. We won’t be adding text transcripts of the lessons since those just don’t come out well for live calls; we’ve only included those for audio courses.

Every part of this experience is optional. You can choose to have an intense all-in experience by attending every call live. Lots of people did that with DAI and loved sharing the journey day by day – in fact I was impressed by how many people showed up live every day. I even grew a beard for those 30 days as some people may recall.

Alternatively, you can take your time and go through the recordings at whatever pacing you want since you get to keep those indefinitely. Or you can mix and match – do some calls live and enjoy the recordings for the rest.

All the breakout room practice portions are by consent. You can dive in and participate, or you can skip those parts and grab a snack instead. Totally your choice. Every session is an invitation, so nothing is forced, and there won’t be any pressure to do anything you don’t want to explore at this time.

Additionally there will be some extra bonuses to help you with ongoing practice and reinforcement.

The price for the full 30 days will be $497 USD. For Conscious Growth Club members, it’s included as part of their membership. There won’t be a launch discount for this course since the main incentive to sign up by April 1st is if people want to participate in the live experience. The long-term price for the recorded version will be the same.

I’m pricing this as low as I think would be sensible, so we attract people who are really committed to sharing in a major social exploration together. Since this will be a very social course, I want to make sure that we have a good base of very growth-oriented people who truly want to upgrade their social lives. I also don’t want to price it too high since I think it’s better if we have more people for you to engage with on the live calls. That’s better for the co-creative aspect. This price feels more than fair to me, especially for 60-90 hours of live engagement together.

Last year’s 3-day Octo Intensive workshop was also $497, and the Guild experience is going to be around 5-6x as long in terms of our time together. Guild is surely going to be rich in ideas and insights, but I also want to maintain an easy-going pacing that gives us lots of space to share, connect, crack jokes, and explore divergently too.

Like we did last year, I’ll be giving everyone the option to credit the full price of the course towards a CGC membership. CGC opens for new members once per year, always in the last week of April, and our CGC year begins on May 1st. We’ve got about a month to go in Year 5, so that will be the start of Year 6.

This year I expect we’ll open CGC for new members roughly from April 25 through May 1st. Since it started in 2017, CGC has always been $1997 per year, and we’re keeping that the same for 2022. So if you do the Guild course first, you’ll be able to join CGC this year for $1500 more. This type of offer was very popular last year, with dozens of people flowing into CGC from the Amplify course. We attracted some really great and active members, which is the main reason I want to do it again this year. I think such an interactive course is a good way to give people a preview of what the CGC community is like as well, especially since there will be many CGCers on the Guild calls.

I’m excited. This is going be a lot of fun for those who choose to engage with it. :grinning:

Here’s some extra info about how I make format choices for our courses, in case you’re curious about that.

With each course topic that we do, I like to stay in divergent space about the exact offer / invitation till the format crystallizes. I always get a signal from reality when it’s time to converge and flow into launch mode, and then everything progresses pretty quickly after that point. Before that point, I’m awash in pondering and synthesizing all the feedback I receive about what people want to work on together.

One thing I’ve noticed again and again is that I can’t effectively force reality to converge before it’s ready. I could try to converge at the personal level by my own volition, but it never feels right to do so until I receive that timing ping from reality. The greater floodgates of support from reality won’t be forthcoming unless we get synched up, and when that synching happens isn’t really up to me. I feel like it has more to do with some collective timing coordination that happens in the background, and I have to wait for reality to let me know when it’s ready. It’s like catching a wave on a surfboard. When I feel that rising wave of energy, I know it’s time to advance from private development mode to public invitation mode. And that wave showed up this week.

I don’t entirely feel that the format choices are made by me. It’s more like I bounce ideas off reality and wait for a very clear YES in response. I’ve explored different formats and creative forms over the years, so I’m very flexible format-wise. I like to just tune in to and listen for what kind of format wants to come through, especially as I get clearer about the themes and changes people want to explore.

Whenever I ponder different formats for a course, I get a feel for whether they’re truly right or not. I sometimes run through several different partial match ideas till I feel that the format really does fit the purpose. I’m basically asking, Is this a match for the collective intentional energy?

This 30-day format may seem intense to some. It does to me too – in a good and appealing way. But it really feels like it fits the collective intentional energy too. It makes sense to me that the transformations that people asked for would match up well with a socially immersive approach this time. Some people shared that they have some major social misalignments in their lives, so I think an immersive approach will serve them well. We may need to generate a lot of energy and mutual support to help people get unstuck.

I do feel there are other ways we could do this course, but they wouldn’t match up as well with that collective intentional energy. I did give serious consideration to doing this as another audio course, perhaps with a smaller number of live calls, but that just doesn’t fit the needs and desires that people expressed. I think we’ll be better served by diving into this experience together.

The COVID situation has apparently reduced many people’s social bandwidth and capacity. I just read an article about that this morning – how people who used to socialize a lot but contracted their social lives due the pandemic are trying to open up more this year, but they’re feeling really drained when they try. It’s like they have to start over to build up their social stamina again. It’s much like not exercising for a couple of years and then trying to get back into it. It may take several weeks to train back up again. So here’s the invitation to train up with a 30-day intensive. Consider this a timely invitation to get back into the social game.

There are a lot of people in my audience, outside of CGC, who have zero growth-oriented friends. They have contacts and colleagues, but those relationships lack depth and intimacy. Some are dealing with significant social trust wounds. A lot of people are experiencing some kind of social withdrawal, yet deep down they really want to change that. It just seems like it takes an extraordinary amount of energy to make these shifts alone. So don’t do it alone. Join us and let’s do this together. There’s power in aligning with likeminded people to do transformational work together.

With these kinds of transformations, there’s some strong inertia to overcome for many people. It’s going to take a lot of intention and energy and collective will to help people (who want to) to shift gears and experience what life could be like with more aligned social flow. There are a lot of thorny issues to collectively untangle.

I think this will be the most co-creative course we’ve ever done because, like with DAI, we’re going to come up with the subtopics day by day, always with the intention of helping people get what they want and need from the experience. It’s definitely not going to be a dogmatic course but rather an exploratory and experiential one. There will be lots of sharing and testing of ideas as people discover what works and what doesn’t work for them as social beings. Part of the big picture intention here is to create a psychologically safe space where people can test and explore and stretch themselves in ways that society never gave them the space or permission to do.

I also know that this format won’t be perfectly practical for some people. The timing, intensity, frequency, or duration may not be a fit for their lifestyles. I’m doing what I can to make it as adaptable as possible. This includes recording all the sessions and posting them the same day, like we did with DAI. If people are pressed for time, they can watch the recordings at 2X speed. Since the breakout rooms aren’t recorded, that shaves time off the recorded versions too.

We’ll also be publishing 1-page lesson summaries in an evolving Guild Summary Guild, also on the same days the live lessons occur. So if people just want to skim the key points on busy days, they can do that.

There’s the option for people to approach this as a 30-day challenge by attending every call live, and some 30-day challenges require significant but temporary lifestyle adjustments and possibly some family discussions. It’s up to each person to decide how much they want to prioritize the live session experience relative to potentially competing priorities. There’s no right or wrong choice there – just what’s right for you and the people you care about, right now.

I’m fully committed to facilitating this experience for those who would appreciate it. I’ll bring my best self to this physically, mentally, and emotionally. It feels like a beautiful time to explore this with you.

I’ll put up the official invitation page early next week, but for now I wanted to give you a heads up with the key details, so you can start thinking about whether you want to do this. The Guild course journey will begin at 9am sharp (Pacific time) on April 1, 2022. It’s going to be a fun ride. :grinning:

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Conscious Growth Club Q&A Call (Video)

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Today we hosted and recorded a live Q&A call for people who are interested in Conscious Growth Club, so they could ask me and other members any questions they have about it. I’m sharing the recording for the benefit of anyone who couldn’t attend the live call.

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I think this video will give you a clearer sense of what CGC is like inside, so you can make the right decision about whether you’d like to join us this year.

Be sure to decide by the end of the day on May 1st if you want to be a member of CGC this year. This is the only week of the year during which we open CGC for new members to join. Our next opening will be in April 2022.

So far 58 members have enrolled for CGC Year 5 now (60 if you include Rachelle and me). If history is any indication, there will be a lot of sign-ups coming through in the last two days. It wouldn’t surprise me if we land in the range of 100 to 150 members by the end of Saturday. Time will tell.

Learn more about Conscious Growth Club, and join us by May 1st if you’re ready for a major year of growth.

Enjoy the video!

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My Intentions for CGC Year 5

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This is the one week during each year during which Conscious Growth Club opens for new members to join. We are open through May 1st. It’s an exciting time inside the group as current members who’ve been in the group for 1-4 years are actively welcoming new members who are just now beginning their CGC journey.

Every year at this time, some members renew for another year. Some members decide to leave or take a break from CGC. And many new members join. Also this year, some previous members who skipped Year 4 have already rejoined CGC for Year 5. I’m delighted to welcome them back.

So it’s a time of transition. Every year in CGC is a different experience because the people are different, and the group dynamics change. Year 5 is likely to be an especially creative year in the group due to many people from the Amplify course joining us. We launched Amplify on March 1st, starting with just 2 lessons, and today I’ll be publishing lesson #60. I’ve been creating and adding a new lesson every single day, 7 days a week, for the past two months. I expect we’ll close at about 62 lessons, so the main course will be complete this week, and then I’ll create some additional bonuses for it too. The feedback on this course and the interactions with the members have been deeply rewarding.

We’re having our 8th and final live group call for Amplify tomorrow (April 28th). CGC members get to attend that call too.

CGC’s Will and Consciousness

The lesson I recorded yesterday for Amplify is called “Stellar Nursery,” and one topic it covers is how big projects can take on a life of their own, as if they have their own will and consciousness. CGC is one of those star-like projects. In the beginning I felt like I had to give it tons of careful thought and nurturing, always going back to getting clear about the intention for it. Now I feel like it’s doing a good job of voicing its own intentions and summoning its own energy for where it wants to go and what it wants to explore and experience each year.

Many people have contributed their own intentions to what CGC is to become. In the past, some had conflicting views about which way CGC should go, and when the group zigged one way, they zagged and left. Others preferred to hang with the zig.

One thing I love about CGC is that it too is an explorer. There are so many explorer types like me in the group, and we’ve collectively given CGC a similar explorer consciousness. CGC has some nicely structured elements, but it has plenty of flexibility to move and dance in different directions throughout the year.

For instance, members often use the CGC Lounge (our 24/7 video hangout room, basically an open Zoom call that never ends) to mastermind together in various ways. Groups form, meet purposefully for a while, and then naturally dissolve when they energy is ready to flow somewhere else. CGC has a very wave-like nature internally, much like how I like to blog and create new courses with the flow of inspiration.

I feel there’s a part of CGC that absolutely resists being caged. It loves freedom. It loves to explore the possibility space. It does not want to be locked down into an overly rigid structure, but some structure is healthy for it as a base from which to explore. It loves to invite and encourage experimentation, spontaneity, and going with the flow of inspiration among its members.

CGC also loves abundance. It delights in inviting new people to the party, yet it’s unattached to who stays and who goes, knowing that it’s up to each individual to align or not. CGC doesn’t try to convince or chase after anyone to join. It offers no resistance when people leave. It simply basks in the energy and presence of being what it is and becoming what it wants to be. And it knows without a doubt that it’s going to be an incredible match for people who want to surf its waves and dance with it for some portion of their lives.

CGC loves compassion. It willingly accompanies people into the depths of their sorrow. It has no fear of pain or trauma. It welcomes transformational tears with love and hugs. It will stand in the Pit of Despair with members and do tequila shots with them while they’re there, occasionally pointing up at the stars.

No Advertising or Social Media This Year

Last year I spent over $6K on Facebook ads to promote CGC during its launch. This year the ad budget is zero.

This isn’t for financial reasons. The ads for previous launches were always profitable, bringing in 2-3x what was spent. But I haven’t spent a dime on advertising this whole year.

I’m not even mentioning CGC on social media this time. I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts in January. I had thousands of followers on both services. I let that go.

Interestingly, CGC’s sign-up and renewal rates are even better than they were last time at this year. It’s still early in the launch week, so I can’t predict where we’ll land, but so far 38 people are already enrolled for Year 5 (40 if you count Rachelle and me). That’s a fantastic start. We’ll see where we end up after the May 1st deadline.

The Amplify launch was ad-free and social media-free as well, and 300+ people signed up for it during the first 2 weeks. That was a good test to verify that advertising and social media just aren’t needed.

I trust my intuition – a lot – and it tells me that it’s time to let go of some old frames, even frames that may have served me well in the past. So instead of thinking of a launch in terms of reaching out to more people, I’m focusing on alignment and depth. I’m deliberating inviting fewer people this time.

This year I’m only sharing the CGC invitation with the core community around my work, namely my blog readers, course customers, and email subscribers. It’s really this community that CGC is intended for. Reaching beyond this community just doesn’t seem necessary or wise.

I’ve noticed that a lot of CGCers don’t even have Facebook accounts anymore. CGC has become such a good and healthy online home for them, and I too see the potential to go even more all-in with this community. Facebook may have a lot of reach, but it terms of depth and intimacy, it’s nowhere close to what CGC offers. And Facebook has so many misalignments that CGC doesn’t have to deal with.

I feel like my own alignment with CGC has grown even stronger since letting go of Facebook and Instagram. I think it has something to do with letting go of the shallowness and misalignments of those services. My brain no longer has to maintain any circuitry for the Facebook-style interactions, so it can repurpose all of that mental and emotional energy for greater depth and engagement. I like how this has simplified my life too.

I especially notice that I’ve been feeling a lot more compassionate and caring towards people this year. I can really feel that as I record lessons for the Amplify course – there’s a depth of compassion there that feels very powerful to me. And I think letting go of social media misalignments helped. This kind of energy feels like it’s way more me. It’s nice that I no longer have to maladapt some part of my thinking and my energy to deal with social media interactions. It feels like my energy matrix is free to stretch into its proper dimensions now – no need to put so much energy into shielding anymore.

I’m just so used to engaging with people at great levels of depth and intimacy. It’s like being a submarine that doesn’t want to surface anymore because there’s so much beauty to explore below the surface.

Last year I was involved in other communities too, including a year-long coaching program. I wrapped all of that up in December, and I also wrapped up my 2020 daily blogging challenge. I feel that CGC is drawing me even further inward, which seems like a very aligned invitation to accept for Year 5.

Inviting Aligned Members

CGC has a very beautiful culture inside that took a while to evolve. There were some bumps along the way, which served as invitations to make clearer alignment decisions. I’ve especially loved how nicely it’s been flowing for the past several months. There’s been a core group of active members who’ve been holding a strong vibe of mutual caring and compersion. I really like how we’ve managed to merge mutual caring with goal-oriented pursuits and improving our results. Internally it feels like group has become more team-like than ever.

Compersion is a word you may not find in the dictionary. It’s adapted from non-monogamy circles. Compersion is the opposite of jealousy or envy. It means feeling happy for other people’s successes and happiness.

I’ve been flowing with a lot of compersion lately too. I really enjoy seeing people in CGC make their lives better. I like celebrating their wins with them. It’s an honor to connect with such growth-oriented people each day. I get to see how much they invest in moving their lives forward, especially when it comes to working through various misalignments. I really do feel good about their accomplishments, big and small, since I seen a lot of their journey to get there, making it feel like I’ve walked that path with them.

Same goes for connecting with people on the Amplify group calls. It’s been a joy to watch people advance their lives in so many ways.

I think one reason that I’m able to feel so much compersion for other people is that I’m really happy with my own life. The pandemic situation has made me feel luckier and more appreciative. In some ways I feel that the pandemic has been a gift. It helped me flow into a much-needed contraction phase, which helped me see how much there is to appreciate that’s right in front of me.

To help members see if they’re aligned with joining CGC, I’ve made some tweaks to the CGC Invitation Page, and I’ve also updated the CGC Frequently Asked Questions to provide even more answers and details about the club.

CGC Is a Trump-Free Zone

One specific thing I’ll share is that CGC isn’t a fit for Trump voters and supporters. This isn’t for political reasons, and it doesn’t actually matter what someone might state as their reasons for supporting Trump, such as their personal financial interests. It doesn’t matter if people made that choice out of ignorance or careful consideration. The behavior alone is enough to disqualify someone from being a match for CGC. That behavior and its effects are just too incompatible with CGC’s culture, values, and internationally diverse membership. This is stated plainly on the CGC Invitation Page too.

Additionally it would not feel good to be put in a position where I’d be expected to coach or help Trump supporters to achieve their goals, so I’m not willing to offer that service to them. That would be incompatible with my own values and ethics. If I invited such people to join, it would degrade my relationship with CGC, and I’m not willing to let that happen. It’s my intention to develop and even stronger relationship with CGC this year, and having Trump supporters in the group would be incompatible with that intention too.

For anyone who has a serious problem with this, I would ask them not to join CGC.

I think that for many people who are very well-aligned with CGC though, the fact that I’ll do my best to maintain CGC as a Trump-free zone may even bring some relief regarding what they will not have to see or deal with inside. This decision includes acknowledging how Trump supporters’ choices and behaviors negatively impact the lives of many members of this community.

Maybe there will come a time when ex-Trumpers have a place in CGC – and if so, I think it would be a very long road to get there – but this year CGC needs to stay Trump-free. If anyone doesn’t like this decision and wants to blame it on my personal shortcomings, it won’t change the decision. It’s my responsibility to make this call, and I think it’s the right call for where the energy flow is going for CGC Year 5. I’m just not seeing any kind of flow in a direction that could be compatible with having Trump supporters joining us this year. I don’t see a scenario where that could be a win-win situation, so I do think it’s wise to take that option off the table.

Public Q&A and “Meet the Members” Call for CGC

To help people who are thinking about joining CGC this year make a good decision, I’ll be hosting a Public Q&A and “Meet the Members” call this Thursday, April 29, 2021 at 11am Pacific time.

You’re welcome to attend if you’re interested in CGC, subject to the caveats I shared above. Just register for the call, and Zoom will send you the link to join.

I’ll answer people’s questions about CGC, and CGC members are also invited to join the call and share about their experiences and tips for new members. They can offer their own perspectives on what CGC is like and who’d be a good match for it.

So this is an opportunity for you to get a little more perspective on what CGC and the members are like.

We’ll record this call too, and I’ll share it on my blog afterwards, so if you can’t make the live call, you can still watch the recording.

My intention for this call isn’t to try to convince anyone to join, so it’s not going to be salesy. My intention is to help people make the right decision for themselves and for CGC. I know that each year, some people really sweat this decision. If someone really is a terrific match for CGC and would likely gain a lot from joining, then everyone is well-served by helping them to see that. And if someone really wouldn’t be a healthy match for CGC, then it’s also in everyone’s best interest that they see that too.

If you do feel aligned to join CGC already, then I invite you to visit the CGC Invitation Page and join us. The new CGC year runs through April 30, 2022, and your membership starts immediately when you join. So if you join now instead of waiting till May 1st to decide, you’ll get several extra days for your one-year membership (the rest of April 2021), and you can begin engaging with the community right away.

If you have other questions about CGC, you can also get in touch via my contact form. 😃

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Join Conscious Growth Club by May 1st

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Conscious Growth Club

Conscious Growth Club is now open for you to join, from now through May 1, 2021. First started in 2017, this is our most comprehensive personal growth program and support group.

We’re about to start our 5th year together, and you’re invited to join this week. This is the only week you can join CGC in 2021.

What Is Conscious Growth Club?

Conscious Growth Club is a private online club and coaching program to help you make faster and more consistent progress. It turns personal growth into a team game.

The essential purpose of the group is simple: We help each other grow into smarter, stronger human beings, whatever it takes.

CGC is an annual membership that includes:

  • A private member forum – Our forum is active every day (87,000 posts so far). It’s ad-free, spam-free, and troll-free. Members share intentions and goals, update progress, help each other solve problems, and encourage the heck out of each other.
  • A 24/7 video chat channel – Imagine a continuous group video call that never ends. Any member can connect immediately to talk live with other members at any time. Meaningful conversations with conscious, growth-oriented friends are always available.
  • Member progress logs – A popular feature for support and accountability, members can maintain progress logs to share their actions and results. I also record progress logs for my own creative projects such as the deep dive courses, so you can see how they’re developed. This is great for people who love seeing how goals are accomplished behind the scenes.
  • Group video coaching calls – We do live group coaching calls 33 times per year – on different days and times to accommodate all timezones. I happily provide personal help and guidance to any members who want it.
  • Quarterly planning sessions – Every quarter we invite members to participate in a structured 5-day process to assess recent progress, refresh 90-day goals, define action steps, and build momentum going into each new quarter. These quarterly beats will help you stay on track towards your goals, as you align yourself with the ambitious energy of people who are committed to improvement.
  • Course library – Members get access to all deep dive courses past, present, and future, including Deep Abundance Integration, Submersion, Stature, Amplify, and a new self-development course to be co-created with our members in early 2022.
  • Monthly challenges – Similar to my well-known 30-day trial experiments, we invite members to do 12 different challenges (any or all) per year for exploration, skill building, and habit improvement. We all support and encourage each other as we go.
  • Club emails – We send a few emails per month to remind members of upcoming coaching calls, share forum highlights, and to keep everyone in the loop on upcoming happenings.
  • Many extra bonuses – CGC includes lots of extra support material, including a 10-day creative challenge mini-course.

New for 2021: A 3-Day Halloween Online Workshop

This year we’re adding an all new CGC benefit: a 3-day online personal growth workshop for October 29-31, 2021 (Fri-Sun).

This workshop will be content-rich and will include plenty of interactive fun and connection with other members. The structure will be similar to one of our live in-person events but adapted for Zoom. This workshop will be recorded, and you’ll get the recordings too.

I will deliver most, if not all of the workshop content, but it’s possible that we may invite some CGCers to contribute too if there’s interest in that and if any CGCers want to stretch themselves.

Since the last day of the workshop lands on Halloween, we’ll invite everyone to wear costumes that day (totally optional, your choice) to make it even more fun and lively. 😃

Consistency Is Key

Conscious Growth Club is a unique program that was carefully designed and tested to help growth-oriented people support and encourage each other to keep improving their lives. I know of nothing else like this anywhere.

This group serves a powerful need that many of my blog readers have expressed – the need for a strong, stable, conscious, and ambitious peer group to support and encourage them every day. People especially need help staying focused and making consistent progress. I realized that this was a problem I could realistically help people solve – a significant yet achievable goal. Hence Conscious Growth Club was created to serve this need.

I’ve done the heavy lifting for you, so you can instantly add a growth-oriented social circle to your life simply by joining us. Rachelle and I will become a regular part of your social circle too since we’re active in the group every day.

Learn More and Join CGC

Here’s a web page to learn all about Conscious Growth Club, so you can decide if you’re a match for joining us.:

Enrollment Is Open Through May 1st

We’re opening enrollment for a 7-day window only, from now through Saturday, May 1st. This will be our only enrollment period for 2021. So if you want to join this year, now is the time. Visit the Conscious Growth Club page to learn the details.

The reason for opening just once for the year is so we can welcome new members all at once. Then we can focus on serving them well for the rest of the year.

I invite you to join us. It’s fun inside. 😃

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Amplify Course Is Now Open for Enrollment

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Our new Amplify deep dive course on creative productivity has launched. I invite you to join if you’re interested in improving your creative flow. You can watch the invitation video to learn about the course here:

Amplify Course

The main purpose of Amplify is to help you make major improvements to your creative flow and creative output. There are 5 core transformations that we’ll be working on together:

  • Overcome creative anxiety, so creative work becomes light-hearted, free-flowing play
  • Improve creative consistency, so you can reliably finish your creative projects
  • Attract an aligned audience that appreciates, encourages, and supports you
  • Build your creative courage to make bigger and bolder contributions
  • Generate abundant and sustainable income from your creative flow

Amplify is an audio course. There are 4 lessons already published, and we’ll be building it up to at least 60 lessons in March and April, with new lessons being added each week. There will be lots of writers, artists, musicians, app developers, designers, YouTubers, and all sorts of creative people going through this experience together. So it’s going to be a fun explosion of creativity. 😊

Since many people wanted this deep dive to have a social aspect as well, I’m also going to host 8 live Zoom calls for all course participants – every Wednesday at 10am Pacific time from March 10 to April 28. These calls will include group sharing, breakout discussions, and Q&A. This gives you the flexibility to approach Amplify as a solo introspective journey, a social journey, or a mix of both. You’ll find a link to register for the calls in the Amplify portal after you enroll.

If you’d like to learn more about the course, please see the Amplify invitation page, which will give you all the details. I’d recommend watching the invitation video on that page to see if the course interests you. That should really give you a good idea of what the course is about, along with extra details about the changes we’ll be working on together.

There’s a launch discount too, which saves you 40% on your enrollment if you sign up by Friday, March 12th. So if you want the discount, you’ve got some time to decide.

I also added a sign-up counter to the top of the Amplify invitation page, so you can see how many people have joined so far (not counting Conscious Growth Club members, who also get access as part of their membership).

I hope you’ll join us for this one – it’s going to be a fun and fascinating deep dive.

Hugs! ❤️

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Checking in With You

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For today’s post I’d like to pause and check in with you. I’d also like to invite you to check in with yourself and reflect on how you’re doing.

I’d genuinely love some feedback from you – not about me or my writing but about you and your life. Would you be willing to share some insight about your current situation and what you’re experiencing right now?

I’m asking because I’m genuinely curious. I want to raise my awareness about what you’re experiencing right now. I want to feel more connected to the people who are reading my blog.

I invite you to pick one or two questions from this list (or a different question entirely that feels inspired to you), and send me your response.

  • What issue or issues are top-of-mind for you these days?
  • What are your biggest worries or concerns?
  • What are your biggest problems or challenges?
  • What are your biggest areas of stuckness or frustration?
  • What would you like to experience next?
  • What’s good about your life today?
  • What areas of life are flowing well for you?
  • What do you like about your current lifestyle?
  • How would you like to change or shift your lifestyle?
  • How has your life changed in the past several months (or weeks)?
  • What kind of work do you do?
  • What’s your current relationship situation, and how do you feel about it?
  • What are you most proud of right now?
  • What recent wins or losses have you experienced?
  • What do you long for or crave?
  • What have you been wanting to learn or explore for a long time?
  • What part of your life feels like it needs to be changed or fixed?
  • What do you appreciate about your life?
  • What’s true for you that no one else knows?
  • What do you wish people knew about you?
  • What would you like me to accept and understand about you?
  • How do you feel about what’s going on in the world?
  • What do you wish you could change or improve?
  • What’s confusing to you?
  • In which area of life do you want more clarity?
  • What attracts your attention these days?

Alternatively, skip the questions and just tell me how you’re doing. 🙂

I’ll read what you share – just me, no one else – and will reply as well if I can manage that time-wise.

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Conscious Growth Club Q&A and Meet the Members – Video

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Today we hosted and recorded a live Q&A call for people who are interested in Conscious Growth Club, so they could ask me questions about it. Several CGC members participated on the call as well, sharing insights on what it’s like inside and answering some extra questions too.

I think this video will give you a better sense of what the vibe is like inside the club, especially the playfulness of how we often interact.

I answer questions about CGC for the first hour, and then we bring some members onto the call to share starting at 1:05:40, so if you want to hear from the members, feel free to skip ahead to that time.

If you’re still on the fence about joining CGC for this year, I’d recommend at least watching the part with the members since that will give you a better sense of how we connect inside the club, which should help you get more clarity about whether you’re a match for CGC.

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Just remember that the deadline for joining CGC this year is the end of the day on May 1st, so please join us by then if you want to be a member of the club this year. Our next opening will be in April 2021.

Several more members joined since we did this call. If history is any indication, there will be a lot more sign-ups on May 1st as well.

Enjoy the video!

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Conscious Growth Club Member Portal Walkthrough

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Here’s a short walkthrough video showing what the Conscious Growth Club member portal and forums look like on the inside.

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I recorded this a year ago, but the look and feel of the portal and the forums are essentially the same today. The main differences from this 2019 video to what we have in 2020 include:

  • We’ve added a whole new course to CGC called Stature, which includes 65 audio lessons on character sculpting.
  • The coaching call times are slightly different this year. The new call times are listed on the Conscious Growth Club web page. We still offer three different times to make them accessible for each timezone.
  • The May 2019 challenge was about exercise. The May 2020 challenge is called “Closing open loops,” which is about finishing incompletes and clearing items off your plate. We do new 30-day challenges every month in CGC.
  • There’s another year’s worth of coaching call recordings in the portal. Each call starts with a personal growth lesson from me, so that’s 36 more lessons (we do 3 coaching calls per month).
  • Several interesting subgroups have emerged in CGC this year, including a book club, a movie club, and a co-working group.

CGC’s once-a-year enrollment window is open till midnight Pacific time on May 1st. Be sure to watch the invitation video on the Conscious Growth Club page if you’d like to join us this year.

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Conscious Growth Club Will Open on April 27

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In the last week of this month we’ll open Conscious Growth Club for new members. The last time we invited new members to join was in the last week of April 2019, so it’s been a year.

I expect the overall structure of Conscious Growth Club, including the private member forums, member portal, coaching calls, quarterly planning sessions, course access, and monthly 30-day challenges to remain largely unchanged. I’m going to review all the features and benefits, decide what to add or tweak, and record a new invitation video for it, so that’s when I’ll share the exact offer details for the upcoming year.

I intend to keep the price the same: $1997 per year. There are no payment plans and no refunds. It’s meant to be an all-in or nothing type of deal, such that the members who join really want to be a part of it.

Some members have already renewed for the next year early, although I haven’t sent out renewal invitations yet.

The full CGC year runs from May 1 to April 30, although people will get access to the group as soon as they join in the last week of April.

Some people have asked if we’ll open twice this year. While that is a possibility, I don’t have any current plans to do that this year, so I’d say that the chance of a second 2020 opening is very low. Presently I just intend to open CGC once for new members for 2020. The doors will open on April 27, and the doors will close on May 1st. So if you miss it, you’ll have to wait a full year for the opportunity to come around again. As long as you’re on my email list, you’ll be notified about the opening. Or you could mark your calendar to check back on April 27.

Even though people have asked to join mid-year, I haven’t allowed anyone to do so. I like welcoming new members together once per year, so we can be in service mode the rest of the year.

CGC currently has about 150 members. About 60 of them joined last year, and the other 90 joined during the Early Access period. The group initially started in April 2017, so we’ve been going for three years now, and this next year that starts on May 1st will be our fourth year.

Coronavirus and CGC

Given the current virus situation, I thought about how it may impact CGC’s 2020 opening and how we should adapt. So I’ll share my thoughts about that. The short version is that we’re proceeding with the opening as we normally would.

It’s obvious that many people are going to tighten up on their spending right now. For some people, spending $2K on a personal growth program will go on the back burner relative to other expenses like rent and food. I understand and accept that.

I also think there’s a compensating factor, which is that some people will be more likely to invest in CGC right now. They’ll want to take advantage of the resources of the group for helping them through their personal and professional transitions. Having such a group to lean on for a year (or more) will be seriously beneficial for some people who want that kind of support, especially when social media just isn’t doing it for them.

Given the current situation in the world, it would not surprise me if the group shrinks in size after the April opening. But pushing back the opening (and by how much) would be a matter of guesswork, and it might not make things any better. The reality is that there doesn’t seem to be any better time for opening the group relative to the current plan, so I think it’s best to stick with the current opening plans.

Fortunately we’re on very stable financial footing, so I don’t feel any neediness regarding numbers for the next opening. If the group shrinks in size, that’s okay. And if some people want to skip it this year, they’re still welcome to rejoin in a future year.

CGC was designed with resilience in mind.  It can function well with 20 members, with 200 members, or with 2000 members. It will just operate differently at different scales. With a small group, it will be more intimate. With a larger group, there will be more energy and activity.

I also like thinking that even when the world is in chaos, CGC can serve as a stabilizing presence for those who want it. While the Olympics may need to be rescheduled, CGC can still open as usual and continue to serve its members through a global crisis.

I’d like this group to endure for decades, so when I think about it from that perspective, it makes sense to proceed with the opening as normal each year, as long as it’s possible to do so. Since this is an entirely online group, it can still function just fine.

I was actually planning to do a new live event in October 2020 in Las Vegas, actually two events back to back. The first part would be a special event just for CGC members so they could connect in person. And the second part would be a new three-day workshop open to all. But I’ve had to take that off the table due to the virus situation. I can’t be certain that the circumstances will allow for a live event at that time. And I’d need to book the dates before the CGC opening, so I could let people know the dates and location. That isn’t possible right now because all of the event spaces in Las Vegas are closed, so we can’t look at meeting rooms even if we wanted to.

I still want to make live events a regular part of CGC as well as doing more workshops for everyone who wants to go, but the current circumstances make it unrealistic to plan anything until we see where the dust settles. And that could be a while, maybe not till 2021 or 2022. In the meantime I’m taking this as a directive to focus more deeply on the online experience of CGC.

Sheltering in Place with CGC

A friend helped me see that CGC is a beautiful group to shelter in place with. It’s a sanctuary for connecting with growth-oriented people in a space free of the craziness that you’ll find elsewhere on social media.

We’ve been actively discussing the coronavirus situation in CGC since February 26th, so our members had a chance to start preparing for this sooner than most people and definitely sooner than the mainstream media caught onto it. Now there are many ongoing discussion threads about adapting to this situation, including trying to predict where things are heading, handling the psychological side, home fitness routines, and more. We even have a check-in thread to keep tabs on members who’ve gotten sick themselves.

Video chats among members seem to be increasing as well. We have a 24/7 video chat channel, so members can talk live whenever they want. While some people are just discovering Zoom today, we’ve been using it since 2017, including for our member coaching calls.

There’s even a discussion about which movies to watch while sheltering in place, and a new subgroup that picks a movie to watch and then discusses it afterwards.

I love seeing how this group has evolved during our first three years, and I’m excited for our future. While I understand and accept that some people will categorize CGC as a non-priority for this year, and I empathize with the reasons they may do so, I think that some people will sensibly prioritize CGC higher precisely because of the circumstances that we’re in now.

Some will want help navigating the uncertainty. Some will want to invest in relationships with people they can trust to be there for them. Some will want to add that stable rock of stability and cool-headedness to their lives.

If you intend to join (or renew) CGC this year, I look forward to sheltering in place with you and supporting you through these current challenges.

And if you decide to pass for this year, I understand and accept that. Please know that you’re welcome to join us in a future year.

And if you’re on the fence, no worries. Just sit tight, and I’ll share plenty of details about CGC as we get closer to the opening week.

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To My Influencer and Marketer Friends

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This is not remotely a “business as usual” situation. Please open your eyes to what’s happening. But more importantly, please open your heart to what’s about to happen.

This isn’t a time to be working on your launches. This isn’t a time to work on your campaigns. The focus on business needs to be put on hold right now.

We all have something much more important to work on right now. We have the leverage to greatly reduce a tremendous amount of suffering and loss of life that’s about to unfold. That this will happen is unfortunately inevitable, but we can absolutely have a meaningful impact in reducing it.

And if there are any marketing and influencing challenges that are worth the committed application of the very best of our skills, this is such a challenge.

The seriousness of our collective situation is going to intensify in the coming weeks – way more dramatically than it already has.

By the end of the month, many more hospitals across Europe and the USA will be where Northern Italy is – overwhelmed and with doctors and nurses dying from the disease too. Hospitals in the USA are already preparing for this by adding tents in parking lots. It’s a race against time, and we have much less time than most people realize. Seattle is already showing us a glimpse of what will soon hit many other cities.

This won’t simply blow over in a couple of weeks. We’re talking months, including the inevitability of 2+ months of full lockdown, which will almost certainly begin by the end of this month.

The best thing you can do now is share the critical importance of social distancing to reduce the spread of the disease, which has a long, silent incubation period. If you do that, you can save a lot of lives.

What if your launches and products are beneficial to people? Of course they are. But consider the opportunity cost of what you could be doing right now instead if you shift your focus into life-saving mode.

I can certainly claim that my work benefits people too, and it surely does, but I think I can be of greater service right now if I respond to the tremendous opportunity of taking direct action to help lower the disease progression in whatever way I can.

One way where I may be able to exert some leverage is to invite more people to join me in helping to get the word out about just how critical it is for all of us to shift gears right now. I’ve already been doing this behind the scenes for days, starting around February 26th. And that’s having some impact. But we still need to do more.

Every day that you work on your usual business instead of promoting the critical importance of social distancing is another day you could have saved lives and reduced suffering. Every day you delay is a missed opportunity for you to truly step up, not merely with personal ambition but with caring, compassion, and courage as well.

This is an extraordinary time for you to take your best expression of ambition and get it aligned with your best expression of caring. This is an invitation for us to collectively change the world in a way that really matters to a lot of people, especially those who will be hit hardest by this disease in the weeks and months ahead.

Where else are you going to encounter such an extraordinary opportunity to do the most meaningful work of your life?

Don’t worry about perfection. Speed of messaging is way more important than elegance right now. Just get the word out as fast as you can. Even if all you do is tell people to stay the fuck home or share the hashtag #staythefuckhome, that will help. Just start with one Tweet. Please.

Don’t worry about being judged or criticized for being an alarmist. By the end of the month, it will be obvious that you did the right thing. You’ll probably wish you’d acted sooner and more powerfully. I already feel that way now.

Please put normal business on hold. Please use your marketing and influencing skills to save lives right now. Every day counts.

It doesn’t matter how big your reach is. Even if you’re just starting a new YouTube channel and only have a few viewers, please get the word out. That’s just as honorable a deed as for those who may reach millions.

Once we’re on full lockdown and people are no longer still going out risking other people’s lives, then maybe it will be an okay time to think about business again. But there’s a good chance your priorities will shift too as the body count continues to rise. Will you still care about business in the same way when people you know start having breathing difficulties, and they’re scared to go to an overcrowded nearby hospital with an exhausted staff and no more beds or ventilators available?

It hurts my heart to see marketer friends brainstorming and pondering the money-making opportunities that may come from everyone being stuck at home, salivating over that captive audience. I can understand that mindset, but I can’t pretend it’s okay. I realize that I must personally do something about that… and encourage others to help us change course as well.

At this time it’s just not okay to be blogging and emailing and tweeting and advertising as if we’re still in business as usual. It’s downright wicked to do such things right now because you’re encouraging others to engage in denial about what’s happening. We need to do the opposite of that. We absolutely must be sounding the alarm to wake more people up to what’s happening. We must do our best to turn the ship of ignorance and denial towards saving lives and reducing suffering.

Years from now when you look back on these days, do you really think you’ll reflect upon how brilliant you were for capturing those extra sales while people were getting sick and dying? Will you feel proud of yourself for your pandemic launches and marketing campaigns?

If you promote stuff that comforts people, that’s great – but save it for later once we’re all under lockdown. Our priorities right now should be to get people to stop silently spreading the disease and to push towards full lockdown to the extent that we can influence that too.

It’s your business and your decision of course. Just please take a peak into your heart and see what it wants to do about this situation. If your current business activities still feel very aligned and if what I’m sharing here doesn’t change anything for you, that’s fine. You have nothing to defend.

While I normally feel very aligned with my business and it’s very flexible anyway, I’m stretching it to go where it needs to go right now in order to push it to be of more service than usual. I’m not willing to be haunted for the rest of my life by the knowledge that I could have tried harder to save lives and reduce suffering – and didn’t. Are you willing to go that route?

This is one of the most extreme times you’ll ever live through. Who do you want to be in this situation? A decade from now, how will you wish you’d responded?

For Everyone

If you see anyone doing “business as usual” posts, videos, promotions, launches, and ads that don’t seem to be helping with the current situation, please actively encourage – no, implore – them to stop immediately and shift gears to save lives and reduce suffering.

Immediately reply to their emails as soon as you receive them. Comment on their posts, videos, and ads right away. Call them out on their Facebook Lives and webinars. Tell them to please focus on saving lives instead of trying to do anything less important right now. Be gentle but please be firm too. And be brave.

Please don’t shame anyone. Please invite them to step up to serve a greater need.

Realize that if you can influence even one more marketer or influencer to help spread the word about practicing social distancing just one day earlier than they otherwise would, you’re saving lives too. You do that, and you’re my hero.

Here are some further resources to help, both for your own education and for further re-sharing:

  • Coronavirus stats – This page shows frequently updated virus stats for all countries, so you can see at a glance what’s happening. Also follow some of the links for deeper stats and data.
  • Stay the Fuck Home – This is a good page for referring people. It shows simple actions to be taken immediately and handle multiple translations for different languages.
  • Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now – Tomas Pueyo’s powerfully persuasive piece with lots of math-based reasoning, charts, and graphs (more than 28M views in the past week). I’ve been sharing this one a lot and feel grateful for Tomas’ efforts.
  • Jason Warner’s Facebook post – A solid math-based post to help persuade people of the importance of changing behaviors immediately. Please reshare this on Facebook. I did, as did 119K other people so far.
  • Messages from Italy – This is a short YouTube video of Italians under lockdown sharing what they wished they’d known 10 days earlier.

Note that my blog posts are uncopyrighted and donated to the public domain. So you’re free to republish, translate, or modify them… no need to ask. Just get the word out that we need to change our behaviors immediately to save lives and reduce suffering.

Please care.

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