Surprisingly punctual.
Maybe that should be the name of this series moving forward.
It kinda sounds like a jinx though. For now, I’ll avoid tempting fate.
Instead, I’ll do what I have been doing:
Focus on Discipline and Consistency.
After all, that’s how I got this far:
I’m sure it’s also the way to get to whatever the next milestone is.
Fancy names don’t mean much.
And right now, I prioritize…
1. Only What Serves
This was a crucial theme for me this month.
I cut out some major things.
Including:
- Video Games – Bought FIFA about a year ago. Too easy to procrastinate with when ahead of my work. My dreams deserve my energy. My imaginary Chelsea squad does not.
- Soda – This one always happens by default when I keep the right habits. I don’t really even have to think about it. During soda cravings, I mostly just think “ew.” Thanks Health Theory.
- Rescued Dog – I starved dog showed up at my house this time last year. I never had time to train him. He drove me crazy. I had to let him go. Surprised how easily I forgave myself.
All major wins.
But the biggest thing:
My “I could live in a cardboard box as long as I had the woman I loved and my son” mentality.
I remember saying that in 7th grade.
I have a bias toward contentment. I can pretty much find my equilibrium with any circumstance. I love love. It’s pretty much the only thing my spirit needs in this lifetime. And generally, I’m good as long as I have something to give it to.
Except… life.
Now, I “have” two sons. And I “lost” the woman that gave them to me.
Please note:
People are not possessions.
Which means I don’t necessarily think that any of them were mine to “lose.” Yet I have a story built around “earning” them back. I’m not sure that it is accurate. But it is empowering.
So I use it. Because it serves me.
It also has its pitfalls. It can suck when you make everything “your fault.” But it gives you a much stronger platform to make strategic changes.
I made several this month.
I cut out a lot. With that, I’ve had room to add. But I don’t do so lightly.
Gotta be careful what “fills your gaps”.
I decided to go with the “blank slate” approach.
2. Back to the Roots
I’ve been on a personal growth journey for about seven years now.
It’s gone through fits and stages.
By my estimation:
I have an extremely healthy spirit. I am blessed with a ridiculously healthy, ridiculously capable, and ridiculously fun body to live in.
Where I need work:
Habits, discipline, social skills, mental/emotional health—and plenty of work skills to boot.
Three or four years ago, I replaced all of my friends with motivational speakers.
In other words, I went into hermit mode and tried to brainwash myself with YouTube.
This was basically an attempt to fill my inner circle with “A+” players. I wanted friends who would push me to be better. So I literally thought of various high performance coaches and motivation speakers as my friends. Our conversations were rather one-sided. But I grew to love many of these people almost as friends.
It was fairly successful.
I went back to that in August.
It wasn’t so much about being unsociable this time. But I filled pretty much all of the time I had been wasting on FIFA with some of my favorite voices.
People like:
I added Jim Rohn to the list this time around. (I’ve been sleeping on him. He’s a killa’.)
And of course, my favorite “moticuts” were in heavy rotation. August gave me plenty of new ones as well.
Perfect way to get right.
Now, it’s time to bring out the…
3. 4th Quarter Clutch
Oh lovely fall.
Smells like the grass from football practice.
Always reminds me how clutch I am.
Sometimes I need that reminder. Luckily, it comes every year.
Though the time is still months away, the fall reminds me of winter football games…
Those games with the worst weather.
Those games against Paige and Grimsley.
Those games when I knew I was getting the ball at the end.
Those games I needed two showers after.
Those games we won and lost.
Those games my “heart” always shined most.
Now, I play on a different field. It took me a few years to get the same mentality.
After all.
Sitting on your butt isn’t as fun as putting dudes twice your size on theirs.
Plus, I started with pick up games.
Playing to a set number of points (completing projects) doesn’t pack on the pressure like playing over a set time limit (running a business year after year). And the competition isn’t as fierce. But I gained the confidence to jump to the big leagues.
In digital marketing, I skipped tryouts.
Still went straight to the league. I am a fncking monster when it comes to SEO, content marketing, and marketing strategy. I literally say to myself throughout the day, “I must be the smartest person alive on the planet.”
Whether that’s true or not isn’t important.
What’s important is that I think it. Now that I’m professionalizing my team, my confidence is even more important. Other people depend on me. I have to lead, train, market, sell, and close with confidence. Honestly, I probably need to get better at jumping out to a big lead and maintaining it. But give me a close game in the forth quarter any day.
Put the ball in my hands coach. Let’s run up the middle.
This year Q4 is easily going to be my best quarter ever in business.
4. Business Growth Log
All I really need to do is continue the trend from Q3.
‘Cuz last month was nice.
(Public) September Business Goals
- Greensboro SEO Pro – Over-deliver for current clients. Find new leads and close ongoing ones.
- Soul Search – Give 100% in business until I make a decision. Continue to look into dank jobs.
- Partnership Network – Help Cuttlefish Marketing, Ideamax Studios, and AC Designs rank in Google.
- MiterSawReviews.Biz – Publish Bosch miter saw reviews and new branding information.
- Personal Brand – Publish +1 post Heroes vs Role Models and monthly post. Work on Favorites.
I destroyed these this month.
Like obliterated.
Here’s what it looked like:
(Public) September Business Production
- Greensboro SEO Pro – Utterly obliterated. Ahead on everything. And it’s closing season out here.
- Soul Search – I’m all in. Set some personal pressure-packed deadlines. Bout to create dank jobs.
- Partnership Network – I am hand holding the squad through a proven $10k/month business model.
- MiterSawReviews.Biz – Only thing I am a bit behind on. Reviews are done. Just need editing.
- Personal Brand – Added several new half-drafts to this blog. Built out several of my Favorites pages.
All in all, it was a really solid month. That extra fuel I talked about in my August post is really paying off. (Love is my best carrot.)
I don’t really even need to elaborate on the goings on here. I’m just crushing in SEO, content writing, and life in general. (I can smell my boys coming back to me.)
August is about to go hard.
(Public) October Business Goals
- Greensboro SEO Pro – Over-deliver for current clients. Find new leads and close ongoing ones. SSDD.
- Grow Organic SEO – Launch Grow Organic SEO with Lauren. Create funnel, ranking campaign, and event.
- Get Squad Ranked – Help squad rank, as the list grows to include Dane, Austin, and a few of my sites.
- MiterSawReviews.Biz – Publish Bosch miter saw reviews and update. Plus, optimize WordPress backend.
- Personal Brand – Publish any of my random posts. Get people to read it and get feedback. Promote?
To be clear, the first part of number 1 is always most important. But now I have more time and energy for everything else.
Again, that’s largely due to what I cut out this month.
But I never discount the things I put in either.
5. Growth Diary
This month I:
- watched a ton of Les Brown speeches beginning to end. Straight fire. I’ll detail them on his page sooner or later.
- watched lot’s of Jim Rohn’s material, even this one from his mentor Earl Schoff.
- watched lot’s of Brendon Burchard and Robin Sharma. They both help me increase performance and become a better person.
- filled my house with Billy Alsbrooks’s voice almost every morning
- listened to some of my favorite heavy hitters from Inky Johnson, Art Williams, and Walter Bond (New).
- relied on David Goggins when I was considering being a little b!tch.
- fell back a little on my boys Gary Vee and Uncle G. But it’s been a big month putting both of their words into practice though.
- ignored just about everyone else that I have been studying over the last few months and went to town on work.
- learned even more about web hosting and added to my bag of tricks for WordPress, Divi, and WooCommerce.
- tripled my Monday.com skills.
- continued One Piece (I put my life on the line for my Nakama)
- found Tash Sultana. Holy wow. Cried to this song probably 20 separate times. Angels sing with her. Listen.
- wrote the best affirmations of all time in my Bullet Journal. I also added the “Manifesto” spread to my monthly dashboards.
Yea, I basically crushed my mental space this month.
October is already looking even better.
I think this will be the last quarter of these lame posts.
I might still do some sort of update… numbers 4 and 5 are most useful to me.
But I need to put some of these other ideas into their own posts and complete the umpteen half-drafts I have on this site (and others).
Luckily, the Internet (and the team members I make proofread) should only have to suffer through three more of these.
After all, a monthly post for a whole year was just the baby goal. In truth, I want to add posts worth reading on this blog.
Maybe I will finally start getting some of those published later this month.