The Moment I Knew I Needed To Quit: Finding My Flow #1
Newsletter #37
Wahhhooooooo! Welcome!
On a recent flight I was blessed with the special fortune of an essay blossoming out of my subconscious in a way that led my thumb’s struggling to keep up. One of those moments where space and time seizes to exist (until the plane clunks down on the tarmac) and leaves you thinking “well why can’t writing be that easy every time?”.
The blog focuses on the moment I knew I needed to quit my job and begin walking the pathless path.
Up until the moment of resignation, the main obstacle for me to pursue the pathless path was how I didn’t feel safe to do so. There was no one in my immediate proximity who was. I had no role models, reference points or road map.
There were other people on the internet who were doing it but they don’t seem real.
I place them in the bucket of random internet characters. More real than characters in your favourite TV show but not so real you’re ready to blindly follow their guru-like self-help tweets.
Inspired by this observation I’m setting the intention to begin sharing my journey. The good, the ugly and the existential angst.
Below the essay and videos this week you’ll see my reflections on my first six months being a full-time solopreneur. I’ll share what my expectations were, what’s gone to plan (not a lot), what hasn’t and what it’s all taught me.
Index for this newletter:
Blog: The Moment I Knew I Needed To Quit
Videos: Favourites from the past month
Pathless Path Update
Fail/Funny Moment of the Month
Without further ado:
Blog: The Moment I Knew I Needed To Quit
My body shuddered, a physical repulsion at the request of my manager.
I was sitting on my now girlfriend’s bed, the morning sun beaming through the slightly ajar door.
I’d been wrestling with a decision for weeks. No, it was months. Scrap that, I’d been wrestling with it for years.
However, up until this moment the stories I told myself had paralysed me. Mental chains constricting my physical reality.
But now, observing the sensations my body made when asked to remind our CEO that after my sabbatical I’d be returning to Sydney, my decision became clear.
I’d quit and begin walking the pathless path.
What is the pathless path?
Paul Millard who coined the term describes it as “an alternative to the default path. It is an embrace of uncertainty and discomfort. It’s a call to adventure in a world that tells us to conform."
I saw it as throwing myself into the abyss of unemployment and trusting my passion, intuition and courage would guide me to a life and career that is uniquely me.
And if not, I’d have 12 - 18 months of adventures before returning back to the default path with a few less zero’s in my bank account.
The Wisdom of Your Body
I now smile and shake my head at how easy the decision was once I removed my mind from the decision making process and listened to my body.
The magic of listening to your body is it bypasses our cultural conditioning. For me it dismissed the stories that kept me trap:
“You’re never going to get a sweeter setup than your current corporate job if you leave and fail to make things work”
“What skills are you going to monetise?”
“You’re still learning here, you don’t need to leave yet”
“Extend your financial runway more”
“Build up the side hustle a little bit more first”
It simply became a matter of current job = feel bad. Quit = feel good.
The answer couldn’t have been more obvious.
Reflecting back, I also tremble knowing the chains I’d still be fighting against if I hadn’t listened to my body.
How the stories would be strong enough to give up living in Bali, the first place I felt safe enough to express who I am. Not who society wanted me to be.
And convince me to live in Sydney, a place where status games riddled my mind and work became a cesspit of guilt and frustration. Guilt for being paid 100% of my salary despite not giving 100% of my effort. Frustration for how slow things moved and how small inconsequential tasks became focal points of my day.
The Desire For Safety
I now realise the root of those stories was how I didn’t feel safe to pursue the pathless path.
No one else in my immediate proximity was. I had no role models. No roadmap. No where to turn to answers.
It made me realise in the human experience we’d rather suffer but feel safe, than potentially end the suffering but feel unsafe.
So I’m writing this as a call out to anyone out there who may be suffering in their job in silence, who finds themselves restricted by the chains of their stories and who has ambitions to explore the pathless path but currently doesn’t feel safe enough to do so.
I’m here.
Much love,
Huzz
Favourite videos of the past month:
2023 Disco Memories
Growth Challenge #9: Stand-Up Comedy
Pathless Path Update #1: A review of the past 6 months
To set the scene, when I quit in June my big bet was that Sprouter, my 4-week cohort-based course empowering people to act on their ambitions would be my source of income going forward.
After running three (free) cohorts and receiving amazing feedback, I knew I had something of value to offer people.
Hypothesis A: Video creation = fill cohorts
My main challenge was going to be customer acquisition. My hypothesis at the time was if I started creating regular video content and showing up on Instagram, I’d be able to fill cohorts. To honour this hypothesis I invested in video course to bring some accountability and structure to the process.
Well 6-months later I’ve made approximately $1,000 from running Sprouter. None of which came from videos, all of which came from people who knew me personally.
Hypothesis A: Video creation = fill cohorts ❌
Why did videos fail to convert?
My belief is founded in Seth Godin’s wisdom. He shares how marketing in its simplest form is attention and trust.
Social media is great for attracting attention (my Sprouter videos received over 2k+ views). However, I’ve come to realise this doesn’t convert to trust when it comes to a service like coaching (especially with a small following).
Benefit of the process: I now have the courage and confidence to show up on camera
Hypothesis B: Warm reach outs = fill cohorts
To steal a quote from Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. So like a good scientest, I updated my hypothesis after coming across Alex Hormozi.
One of his methods for acquisition is the 100 reach outs a day method. Like the name suggests you do a 100 reach outs a day to your contacts. For me I started with my Instagram followers.
Let me be clear this was a MASSIVE groaaaaaan. The first hundred messages I sent terrified me.
To ease the sleaziness I naturally felt, the message I sent through asked people to complete a quiz (you can see the quiz here: https://www.nikigai.com/). The quiz was designed to qualify whether the person identified with the pain points Sprouter solved. It then led to a landing page of lead magnets (videos and exercises designed to build trust).
536 reach outs later zero people converted to customers.
Out of the 536, 191 filled in the quiz for me.
Of the 188, 56 identified with the pain point.
Painfully, not only did none of the 56 who identified with the pain point not convert, only 1 engaged with any of the lead magnet products that I followed up with.
Hypothesis B: Warm reach outs = fill cohorts ❌
Why did the reach outs fail to convert?
I believe the answer is found in a quote by my mate Barney, “Huzz, I trust you could help me but I’d rather have you keep being my mate, than my coach”.
The wisdom of his response (which I didn’t see at the time because he shared this before I did the 536 reach outs) is found in understanding status. We as humans are status oriented animals. It’s literally what the whole luxury fashion industry is built on. We strive to have higher status.
By offering to coach people I was proposing we change the relationship between us. A notion they consciously or subconsciouly don’t desire.
I believe this with a combination of not building enough trust for my domain expertise is why I failed to convert people, even when they identified with the pain point!
Benefit of the process: I transformed my intellectual understanding about how funnels work into an emotional knowing
Hypothesis C: In-person workshops = fill cohorts
To continue to postpone any questions about my insanity I’m once again updating my hypothesis.
My next three month experiment is testing whether running in-person workshops in Bali will convert people into participating in Sprouter. This hypothesis is built on the following assumptions:
Attention:
I’m capturing potential leads attention through advertising through the workshops space schedule
If people attend a workshop on an area Sprouter supports they are qualifying themselves as a lead
Trust
If they receive value from the workshop and like my style I’ll gain their trust
Status
Because they’re attending a workshop where I’m the facilitator and they’re the participate, there is no “status-relationship change” if they express interest in Sprouter.
The added bonus of running workshops is it also creates a new revenue stream for myself. I didn’t do this earlier because I didn’t have my Bali working visa. However, after a $2.8k investment I now have one for the next two years.
In review, despite all my failed hypothesis and lack of traction, I’m super grateful for the past six months. It transformed a lot of “intellectual understanding” that I had about business concepts (marketing, acquisition funnels, sales) from different courses I’ve done. To an “emotional knowing” - giving me real life experience with these concepts which will continue to serve me in the future.
What Money Did I Live Off?
Learning I only earned $1,000 from Sprouter probably leaves you wondering “what did you live off?”.
Two primary sources:
Savings. Thankfully living in South-East Asia has a lower cost of living.
Silent Discos
The biggest surprise since quitting has been the emergence and popularity of running Silent Disco’s.
In the 10 weeks I lived in Thailand (4 in a breathwork training, 6 living freely) I earned $1,500 popping up and asking for donations on the beach (average of $100 a disco). Including being invited to run one in a meditation course.
Moving back to Bali my hope was I’d find similar success.
Unfortunately this wasn’t the case with the average beach disco only bringing in $60. There are few reasons I believe I had less success which I won’t drag on about here.
However, popping up on the beach did lead to other opportunities.
I was invited to run a silent disco at a retreat in a real pinch myself moment. Here I was being paid for preparing a Spotify playlist and dancing like my crazy energetic-self.
The person who runs the largest conscious parties in Bali reached out about collaborating on a future weekly event. Hosting more formal events like these was the second reason I was inspired to secure my working visa in Bali.
In summary, my living expenses over the past 6 months living in South-East Asia were roughly $350 a week ($8,400) and I earned roughly $3,000 between discos and Sprouter.
You don’t need to be a math wizard to understand I’m quickly chewing into my savings runway.
In my next newsletter I’ll share how I’m updating my income strategy going forward and why I’m still confident in the path I’m walking.
Fail/Funny Moment of the Month:
Why was I dancing like a madman in my cousins backyard?
Well besides the fact I was locked outside with nothing better to do…
I’ll rewind:
A friend recently shared a video with me where someone was guiding hundreds of people wearing silent disco headsets through a pump-up routine. He stood elevated on a platform in the middle of the room and surrounding him were hundreds of people mimic’ing his actions.
As soon as I saw this it became an aspiration of mine to do the same one day.
So my growth challenge for the week was to host a similar pump-up session before my next disco.
What you’re seeing in that video is me rehearsing my routine 😂😅
Until the next newsletter,
Much Love,
Huzz
2023 Disco Memories is bringing me ALL the joy. :)
So good to hear you're doing well and doing this, Nic!
Loving all the insights you're sharing here. I hope things start picking up financially!!!