2 minor updates + 1 major update

👀

Minor Update #1: Substack

I only have one more 4-part series that I’ll be publishing from my old writing.

After that series is done, I won’t be publishing on a weekly basis anymore. Moving forward it will be ad hoc, whenever I have something to say.

It’s how it goes whenever a cadence gets created, at some point, trying to stick to the cadence comes to the forefront of your thinking instead of the original passion/intention that led to the cadence in the first place… and that’s how quality goes down ;D

Part of life is learning to embrace when things come to a close.

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Minor Update #2: The Parent Project

Some of you may have been following our work at The Parent Project. As of this week, we have decided to wind down the project because we collectively feel like we have “graduated.”

As you may have read my post in October, we did this project for over a year and had some really meaningful results across the board.

Lessons and Reflections After 1 Year of The Parent Project

We will no longer be live-streaming or focusing on our relationships with our parents because we have succeeded.

I feel very comfortable calling up my mom or dad at any point just to catch up and see how they are doing — a sentence I didn’t expect to be able to say at this point in my life.

Of course, you can expect new side projects to trickle in :)

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The Big Update: I left my 9-5!

Maybe you saw this coming, I sure didn’t. At least not this soon, and not under the circumstance that played out.

So here’s scoop.

So in May 2020, I ran an experiment on Facebook about helping people find their “Zone of Genius.”

It was a wild success. Or at least, far more successful than I could have ever imagined.

That Facebook post led to ~20 people signing up and lots of people telling their friends about it and I’ve done over 100 one-one sessions since then.

In the midst of it, Kimberly Han introduced me to a guy named Tim I never expected to become responsible for what I’m about to share.

1. Tim did a session with me in May 2020 and ended up sending me $1,000 🤯 (I didn't ask for $, he just asked for the best way to pay me at the end of the call).
   
   I just thought, “Wow, I guess this was super powerful for them…” didn’t think much of it.
   

2. At the end of that initial call, Tim also expressed interest in catching up every few months or so to see how the project was coming along because he was curious about what it might look like to build a company around the work I was doing.
   
   Same thing with that, I just thought he was super interested/curious.
   

3. Over the course of the year, Tim kept sending people my way (probably over 20-30 in total) to try a session with me and people continually loved it. These were folks who either worked with him, were his neighbors, or students (he also teaches at an MBA program).
   
   And each time he sent someone over, I just kept thinking, “Wow, this dude really loves this thing I’m working on.”

And now, with hindsight, I understand all of Tim’s behavior now.

Around May 2021 (a year into this experiment), we were catching up and he casually mentioned that he envisioned building a school around the Zone of Genius concept. I casually said, “Oh that doesn’t sound too complicated,” and then he asked me if I could draft him a rough proposal.

A few conversations later he was asking me what it would take for me to execute on the school concept full-time.

Wait, what? 🤯

I basically said that I’d want to get paid more than I was making at Searchlight (now former job) and after some napkin math, he said, “Ok, that works, I have a lot of excitement about this.”

Wait... what? 🤯🤯

A few conversations later, we dove into a few more details. I wanted to make sure he was serious and that I’d be set up to devote my full and best energy working on it.

I shared with him that I wanted at least 12 months of runway because I knew if I had less, it’d be hard to do my best work and I’d likely be thinking about financial stability in the back of my mind. “I’ll make that work. Let’s just assume you need 18 months.”

Dude, what? 🤯🤯🤯

Sooooooo.

Here I am.

I’m working on “Zone of Genius” full time now, with a much-larger-than-I-expected runway, financially stable, and my full attention to figure this new puzzle out.

Yeah. 🤯

🤔

So for those who haven't been in the loop:

What’s the deal with this Zone of Genius thing?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve taken a bunch of personality tests like MBTI, Enneagram, Disc, Kolbe, StrengthsFinders, etc etc.

For the vast majority of tests I’ve taken, usually I think, “Hmm. That’s cool” and then I never really think of it again. They usually aren't practically useful, the analysis’ tend to be super vague, and at best, it becomes an interesting intellectual topic that my friends and I can nerd out about.

🌟 When it comes to Zone of Genius, some people had dramatic reframes in their life, changed up how they approached, changed careers, and many folks ended our call with a sense of "wow I feel like I have more permission to be myself." More testimonials here if you’re curious.

So that’s along the lines of my ultimate goal.

I’d like to create a world where people can feel more self aware about how they’re wired, have resources and support to be able to make a livelihood with it rather than feeling like they have to slave away at a job they’re not fulfilled by for decades and then finally retire…

So if you're interested at all you can sign up here. Since I’m still in build mode, there’s no paywall, so it’s free to try. And probably in 6-9 months, the paywall will happen, assuming I build this out right 😆

Of course, if you love the results, share it with a friend! And if you don’t love it, feel free to tell me why and I’ll do what I can to make it better for the next person :)

Know someone who would dig this kind of thing?
Here’s the link again to sign up: https://get.zonesofgenius.com/start