Following The Flow: Finding My Flow Update #3
Newsletter #39;
Wahhhooooooo! Welcome! Shoutout to Lisa & Josh for subscribing since last post!
I believe a magical flow exists for everyone’s life.
Not like a preordained destiny.
But certain paths exist that only you could walk due to your unique skills, experiences and circumstances.
I see it as an alignment of what gives you flow internally, with what’s flowing for you externally.
Csikszentmihalyi’s research beautifully articulates the concept of flow state and how to find your internal flow.
But to find what’s flowing externally I believe you need to listen to the universe.
The problem is the universe can’t use words. It uses other means that are easy to miss or dismissed as luck or coincidence if you’re not listening.
I believe the universe's language is ease and resistance (EAR).
Resistance as a way to redirect. Ease as a way to say continue.
The crazy 18-month journey I’ve been on since quitting my job has led to an unwavering belief in this.
There’s no other way for me to explain going from popping-up with 13 headsets on a beach on a small island in Thailand to becoming Bali’s largest supplier of silent disco headsets with 350 headsets and running events at beach clubs.
When you find your flow it’s crazy how quickly ambitions become reality.
My desire to write about this is to record reflections of my own journey. But equally to increase “safety” for others who are keen to find their flow. So without further ado…
So without further ado, update number #3:
317 days.
That’s how long it took to go from quitting my job to saving $1,000 through self-employment activities.
.Other numbers that capture the experience of the past 10 months: 951 meals where I stressed about money. 8 months where my body naturally slept more than 10 hours due to stress. A multitude of occasions where I felt ashamed I couldn’t buy loved ones a “better” gift for birthdays, weddings, special occasions and Christmas.
Was it hard? Yes. Stressful? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Without a doubt because within that stress, there was freedom, ambition and growth like I’d never experienced before.
I thought before I quit I was doing “everything I could” to make my self-employment side hustles grow. However, the fear of returning back to a life in Sydney I didn’t enjoy created an incentive like never before. This fear in combination of a challenge to do one thing a week that terrified me obliterated every limitation I ever previously placed upon myself.
There were no more excuses for things I dreamt about doing but didn’t have time or capacity to do. With no job all I had was time. The only limitation was myself.
Did it take way longer to source consistent income than originally anticipated? Absolutely. But here’s how I finally got there:
“Getting Paid To Learn” - Sons of the West Update
Upon quitting, the first challenge I set myself was to get my living expenses covered. Until then I was playing the “runway game”. The runway being my savings, losing being running out before I could sustain myself in Bali.
My magic number was getting $350 a week covered.
To achieve this a mentor of mine in Bali set me the challenge of “getting paid to learn”. The idea being finding someone who can pay you 1 or 2 days a week for a skillset you’re looking to improve.
Identifying the right person requires some simple mathematics.
If someone is earning $50k a year (less than $1k a week), paying me $350 is 30% of their weekly income. They can’t afford me.
I calculated the sweet spot as someone earning above $80k a year. This at a minimum is $1,500 a week, so $350 is less than 25%.
The reason they’re paying you is one of two reasons:
The work you do supports making more money than you’re paid. E.g. Sales and Marketing leads to an increase in revenue.
The work you do saves more time / money than you’re paid. E.g. backend systems, HR, accounting leads to greater efficiency which saves time and money.
Admittedly, when quitting I didn’t have this understanding and didn’t know what skills I'd sell to others. But the incredible thing about the Pathless Path is how it allows space for unpredictable, yet amazing things to come into your life.
For instance I could have never predicted the opportunity to work one-day a week for Shaun Kay, the leader of the Sons of the West, healthy masculinity group. An opportunity that has led to incredible life experiences like the following.
To set the scene:
I found myself sleeping in a rainbow circus-like tent, on a property 3 hours south of Perth with men that had neck tattoos, dreadlocks and flat caps.
Within 24 hours of arriving I’d witnessed most of the men bawling their eyes out at some point.
After 36 hours I reflected to one of the men “it’s great to see you smile today’. He shared that it was the first time he had smiled in years.
To rewind a little bit:
To start this year one of my intentions was to begin stepping into my healthy, masculine power more. 2023 was a year where I went from this guy (short, back and sides corporate haircut) to this guy (full fro, rings, ears pierced, walking rainbow).
Throughout the year as I began emerging as this person, I found myself heavily gravitating towards feminine energy. It was like I was a delicate flower and I didn't have the confidence to stand tall in a forest full of oak trees aka “strong, confident men”. I needed the softness and the kindness of the feminine to nurture my emergence.
However, stepping into this year, the next stage of my growth was to begin standing tall as this new person. To overcome the fear (and previous trauma) that I’d experience being around other men.
My intentions on how to do this were unclear but when the opportunity to tag along to the “Sons of the West” Anzac long-weekend retreat popped-up, I committed without hesitation.
Fast forward to the end of the four days, I was blown away. I left thinking every man on the planet needed to receive this education.
I realised we live in a culture that fails to properly educate us on how to step into our healthy masculinity.
I'm not talking about getting in ice baths and doing breathwork. I'm talking a roadmap that gives structure to your personal growth:
A way to view your progress
Empowering language you can use with your friends, family and partner
Clarity on the behaviours that show you are living in your shadow vs in your power
I’ll share more about the 8 archetypes that Shaun uses to teach this in an up-coming post.
“Following the Flow” - Silent Disco Update
Imagine our lives are rivers.
When you experience progress this is the river flowing.
When you face resistance: things not going to plan, delays or curve balls, this is your river hitting a bank.
In my job in the past, no matter how much resistance I faced in a situation, I found myself conditioned to bash through any banks. After all, we had deadlines and KPI’s to hit.
But what if the universe has a magical flow for your life?
Imagine the bank you’re hitting isn’t there to create stress, frustration and annoyance. It has been placed as a re-direction. It’s the universe’s way of whispering to you. Telling you there’s a path that serves you more.
Where is Life Easy?
Since quitting my job playing with this flow has been one of the largest shifts in my conditioning.
After quitting, I had plenty of “plans” of what I thought life would look like.
I’d created an online program, Sprouter, that was seeing participants experience major transformations. I’m embarrassed even writing this but I thought by quitting and investing all my time and energy into it, I’d be able to gain 5-10 clients each month (or at a minimum each quarter). By doing so I’d comfortably be able to support my life in Bali.
I quickly learnt my “plans” were based on an ignorant fantasy.
However, it didn’t stop me from attempting everything to make them a reality. At one point I even reached out to 550 different people, not one of which converted into a sale.
The other moral to this story is perhaps I’m simply a shitty sales person.
In that moment, rather than stress that no one converted, I saw it as me hitting a “bank”. I could continue to brute force my way to “success” by experimenting with paid ads, cold outreach and referrals. Or I could see the resistance as a redirection.
Allowing Yourself To Be Redirected
Without ruining the end of the story, 1 year and 1 day from my first silent disco with 5 people down at Bondi beach in March 2023, I hosted a 50 person disco at one of Bali’s most beautiful venues, The Istana.
But how did I get there? It was never the plan.
Up until June of 2023, I’d never made money through self-employment. The only time in my life I found people offering me money was my silent disco out the front of the Sydney Opera House. An eye-opening moment as I wasn’t even accepting payments.
A mentor after hearing this and knowing I was about to travel encouraged me to take my headsets with me.
I soon found myself in Thailand and began popping up starting disco’s a few times a week. I quickly found myself making between $100 - $200 every time I popped up.
Compare this to me reaching out to five hundred people with zero conversions. One path in my life was flowing. The other was hitting a bank.
The concept of following the flow has led me to Bali.
Not only am I continuing to run weekly disco’s here, I’ve established a rental business and I’m now the largest headset rental supplier in all of Bali.
“You’re doing sales because you failed at marketing. You’re doing marketing because you failed at product” quote by Naval - Growth Game
Crippled by subconscious beliefs I wasn’t good enough and an insatiable love of learning, after university I spent another $30,000 on online programs. 42 of them to be exact.
But there’s one principle I embodied last year that created more growth and transformation than all 42 courses combined:
Do one thing a week that terrifies you.
They often say, design the product you wish you had, so in February of this year I did exactly that.
I created a concept I called the “Growth Game”.
It combines my love of games, running programs and doing things to overcome fear.
More simply it can be described as a group accountability container built on gamification.
The game is built on the principle that each week you set yourself a daily challenge and a weekly challenge. Every time you complete a challenge you score points. Each game runs for 3 weeks.
The first game started with 4 of us. In March we had 8, April had 16 and now in May there’s 28. Next month I’m targeting 50.
The most exciting part though?
I managed to double the size each month by creating 0 videos for social media. I created a model that relies on word of mouth.
Or in other words, the product is so great, people are excited to share it with their friends, meaning I don’t need to do marketing (or sales).
I’ve come to realise that people do things the first time because they’re curious, they join the second if they love it and the third time and beyond because all their friends are there.
I’m creating the Growth Game to be the school/university experience I wish I had. A place where “emergent learning” takes place.
In “emergent learning” rather than learning by a ‘teacher’ telling you the right answer. The ‘teacher’ asks a question and the ‘student’ creates their own right answer. The model for learning becomes:
Identify your own answer
Action it
Observe the results
Iterate
Repeat
This education model recognises we’re all unique. It empowers students to “create their own adventure” and identify their own “truth”. Rather than “cookie cut” learning experiences and answers.
The best part?
The Growth Game hasn’t proven to be one of those things that is great in theory, but fails practical application. After 4 Games the transformations and learnings speak for themselves.
In Growth Game 4, a player with musical ambitions entered the game never having shared his gifts before. In week 1 he sang and played guitar for his parents for the first time. Week 2 he performed for his girlfriend and her parents. In week 3 he popped up on the sidewalk next to a cafe.
He shared this with me at the conclusion of the game:
If you’re interested to learn more about the Growth Game you can do so by clicking here.
Next Game starts June 9th. First game is free 🫶🏼
Favourite videos of the past few months:
Running a silent disco for school children in Bali
Running a breathwork event with Marcel Hoff (Wim Hoff’s brother)
A sneak peak of Huzz Rise, a morning pump-up event I host
Funny Moment of the Month:
We’re at one of Bali’s most luxurious beach clubs on a Sunday afternoon so I can meet someone.
However, before our meeting I have the final celebration call for Growth Game 4.
I appreciate how much Zoom calls can suck so I always like to spice them up however I can. This usually involves some form of dancing to start them off.
As someone leading a program on overcoming fear, I appreciate the need for me to walk the walk.
So despite the location I proceeded to lead the pre-call pump-up from the middle of the beach club:
Until the next newsletter,
Much Love,
Huzz