One of the benefits of giving myself a 100-day window to start a brand is pacing. Pacing my own energy.

In starting to write this book, I’m consistently getting flares of excitement, wanting to get moving on the next things. Wanting to start a community and meet people. Wanting to get guests on a podcast to start talking things through. Wanting to build out a workshop.

All that will come.

The most important thing is to stay focused on the first challenge; finishing the book.

As of this post, I’m 50% through, at about 40,000 words. It feels really awesome to have made this progress. All the heavy lifting seems to be written down with the first three letters of DREAMS.

It’s really interesting for me to realize how much of my process involves my philosophy, awareness of inner work, and permission-based presence.

People talk about permission-based marketing, meaning you offer a valuable something that people choose to hear about. Perhaps also known as opt-in or inbound marketing. Basically, you’re not cold-calling and spamming awareness to get growth, which blows a ton of money on plenty of the wrong people en route to finding the right ones.

But a very, very small group talk about permission-based presence.

One of my favorite people to follow on LinkedIn is Sarah Santacroce, who hosted a ‘humane marketing workshop’ a few years ago. I took copious notes as she invited us to look within, look at what we do that creates energy, not drains it. Look for where we find resistance and observe that, not push through it.

Resistance might mean a weakness, a lack of experience, like a muscle that needs exercise. Or it might be telling us that we’re doing something in a way that doesn’t honor who we are, and how we are put together.

So, some thoughts and notes this week about what I’ve done:

Writing group

One, I started a morning writing group with a couple of friends. Just simply picked a time that worked for me, and when I’m regularly present, and shared an invite if anyone wanted to join.

We’re now at about four people who meet every week day. We first say hi for five minutes, and talk about what our plans are. Some are editing articles, some are writing novels. Then we mute for an hour, and check back in with each other at the top of the hour.

It’s just fun. For me, I enjoy the extra commitment that comes from conviviality. It’s probably like a mini dopamine hack to keep myself building this writing habit.

I do find that I’m more relaxed. The mere act of communicating my thoughts, and seeing progress happen, feels like letting off steam.

Chronotypes

I also learned about chronotypes this week. Instagram keeps prodding me with workouts and sleep schedules based on dolphins and lions, and I never slowed down to understand it.

Until a member of this little writing group pointed out that she was a dolphin, which meant that she has a specific sleep schedule, and usually an optimal time of the day when her energy is best.

She then said there are 3 other types - which I immediately googled and took a test. My first pass turned up a Bear Chronotype, and reading a little more showed me that it might be accurate right now. My best creative time is early-mid morning, and I collapse with the sun and like getting up with it.

This has me thinking about the impact of these different kinds of people, and how we don’t have a corporate culture that understands it. Everyone is expected to get up at the same time, and maintain a space of persistent productivity together.

But we aren’t all the same. And if we have the freedom, or we’re entrepreneurs, or working from home, we absolutely should give ourselves permission to create a schedule that works for us.

I think some good conversations will come from this, at some point. I love that it’s an extra layer of permission to honor who we are, and how we are. And to dig in our heels and expect our boundaries to be respected.

Marketing school

A year ago, I interviewed a wonderful person on one of my podcasts, and she floated an invite to be interviewed back for her upcoming project. I agreed, not knowing exactly where it would go, but happy to help.

A year later, her deadline is wrapping up, and I had a great follow-up chat with a member of her team, who mentioned that they are priming themselves to offer career advice to teens and high schoolers all over the USA. They’re starting with homeschoolers, but expanding to Catholic schools all over.

When I mentioned that this new book is in the works, and that I’ve been wanted to nurture a marketing school for millennials and young people, we both got very excited. As of now, no one else in this mentors program is in the entrepreneurial space, like I am.

So what’s fun about this is that a massive part of my work suddenly got easier. I’m partnering with someone who is actively building an audience. I need to build out my services and my products, and volunteer something like a free monthly workshop to offer suggestions and workshop brand ideas.

We’ll see where it goes, but I hope it goes well. Partnerships like this are a win-win-win, for me, them, and their audience. Which is exactly how I like to do things.

So, the key here is to pace myself, keep going with my beta readers, and continue posting this book on this blog.

As of today, I’ve added a new page, and will start linking the posts together so that they’re easy to find on that page. I’m also recording them in audio, so hopefully they’re a little more personable to follow.

Thanks for being a part of my journey. I’m looking forward to more of yours!

Do you know your chronotype?

Comment below :)

Pacing, writing schedules, chronotypes, and a…