#1: Welcome to your transformation …

Hey, you! I am so happy to see you here!

I bet you signed up for these messages because you have a big dream. 🙂

I’m a big dreamer, myself. Always have been, ever since I was little.

You and I share tremendous good fortune.

We have the ability to move toward our dreams. Maybe, in some ways, even create them almost out of thin air.

But as inspirational as dreams can be … they’re also intimidating. Sometimes they scare us. Sometimes they shame us, because we feel we should be farther along by now.

At this point in my life, I’ve been lucky enough to help thousands of people move in the direction of their dreams. If I can help you do the same … that would be my privilege.

What these messages are all about

We’re into compassionate self-determination here. And by “we” I mean you and me, not some vast business empire.

Compassionate means we don’t blame ourselves for things that haven’t turned out as we planned. (For the vast majority of humans on this planet, lack of success comes from a systemic lack of access to resources and opportunity.)

We also don’t blame ourselves for funky stuff in the past. All those weird or wrong turns led you here. It’s our job to figure out what’s amazing about “here,” and what doors we might unlock to “even more amazing.”

I hate the expression “everything happens for a reason.” There’s not some twisted deity out there putting you through hell to teach you a lesson.

But everything … happens. We work with that. And we move forward.

Self determination means we don’t accept unhelpful self-definitions. Things like “I’m not the kind of person who can make it happen,” or “I’ve gone about as far as I’m going to.”

We also won’t be getting into most of the usual success advice.

Because the usual success advice is written for people who are already successful.

If that aggressive, fist-bumping bro advice was going to work for you, you’d be at your destination by now. You’d be reading this from some adorable little Pinterest-worthy cabin surrounded by books and cash and cupcakes and whatever else is on your Vision Board.

People like you and me need different strategies.

The most visible model for success is not the only model.

One of the things I want to do with this space is explore those alternate models — the ones that have served me well, and that I think will serve you, too.

You can be more powerful than you are today.

You can have more safety, more security, and a better quality of life.

You don’t have to settle for the fearful, cramped life we see all around us.

You can become more Free.

There won’t be any magic involved, or airy-fairy “wishing.” We’re going to keep it grounded in the real, tangible world. We’re going to roll up our sleeves and work.

But we’ll be working on the right things. And that’s what makes the difference.

Resources

Some of you know me for my marketing work. My plan (at least for now) is that we’re only going to touch on that tangentially here.

If you want to know everything I know about marketing, I pour all of it out over at:

• The Copyblogger blog (free)
• The CopybloggerFM podcast (free)
• The content marketing library you can pick up when you join MyCopyblogger (yep, also free)
• The Authority community of content marketers (this one is paid)

But I will say that the way that I approach freedom is completely entwined with how I approach marketing — because getting the word out so often makes the difference between success and failure.

Success has to be on your terms or it isn’t success

Now you might be here because you’re a powerhouse copywriter, or you have a terrific business going, or you’re someone else’s vision of “success.”

But you’d like to explore some more options.

I’m a huge fan of that.

The success you’ve found today might not quite be the success you want. That’s cool, because we can work on that together.

Easy Homework

Transformation doesn’t happen by wishing.

Transformation happens by doing. That means that each of these messages will include a quick, fairly easy homework assignment that will move you toward your goals.

It’s time for a moment of reality here:

You have to do the homework to get the benefit of the material.

Following along and nodding your head feels like learning, but it’s just absorbing some data. To truly learn the material, you need to actively participate.

I’m designing these assignments as a set of simple (usually fun) exercises that will take you about 10 minutes to do. The first one could involve slightly more time, because today, I want you to pick up something you’ll use as your Freedom Journal.

Your Freedom Journal is going to hold your plans, your homework, your references, your nutty ideas, your mind maps … anything that helps you become more Free.

The very best choice for this is a hardbound physical journal. (I happen to like the Leuchtturm 1917 dot journal, or the classic choice would be a Moleskine.) If you have a nice blank book lying around waiting for something cool to do with it — use that.

I like a physical journal because I can flip through it easily, mark it up, doodle on it, create visual connections, scribble mind maps, draw what I see out the window, and once in awhile even use it to draft my content. No digital tool is as flexible as paper and pens. And it’s deliciously satisfying to have a physical thing to flip through as the weeks go by and you start to see real progress.

But.

I know some of you absolutely can’t stand the idea of keeping a physical book you have to drag around. And web-based tools are definitely convenient. So if you’d rather, you can absolutely choose to create your Freedom Journal in an Evernote notebook instead, or OneNote, or any note-capturing program you like.

The most frictionless option: Just open and save a Google Doc. It’s free, you can access it from anywhere, and it’s infinitely expandable.

In your medium of choice, start a fresh page and write

FREEDOM JOURNAL

across the top. Make it plain or make it fancy. Add a doodle or keep it simple.

It’s yours.

When you’ve acquired your journal (even if it’s a simple Google Doc) and written FREEDOM JOURNAL across the first page, drop a note in the comments below saying “I did it.”

Your thoughts and questions are always welcome here! But the most important thing you can let me know is that you took the first easy step.

We’ll be taking another easy step in just a couple of days, so stay tuned.

P.S.

Since today’s homework is so easy, if you’re feeling like doing some more stuff, you can write a few paragraphs in your Freedom Journal about where you want to go.

What do you want? What’s the big project that brought you here? What do you believe it will do for you?

What will your next success look like? How will you know when you get there.

You don’t have to do this, but you might want to. It’s worth doing every once in awhile.

Actually, you can write anything else that you want. Make sketches of your cat, plan your budget for when you’re a millionaire, or draft the introduction to your new podcast.

Your Freedom Journal is invaluable, but it isn’t precious.

By “precious,” I mean something that has to be saved for a special occasion. That’s a creativity killer.

Make marks in it. Let it be imperfect and messy. Write silly things in there, if that’s what you feel like.

If your blank book is super fancy and you feel intimidated by starting the first page, slap some stickers on it. Spill part of a bottle of ink over it. Or a glass of wine, or some coffee. Scribble on some of the pages with crayons or any other art supply you have lying around.

It’s a funny thing. Once some of the pages are “messed up,” you’ll feel free to start bringing your truth there.

You can let us know about any of this in the comments. Or you can keep your writing a secret for now. It’s always totally up to you.

P.P.S.

Since you’re subscribing to this mini-course by email, you’ll want to do all the smart things we do to make sure we’re getting messages.

You know your provider better than I do. Whitelist the first message, mark it as “Important,” move it out of whatever weird folder Gmail decided it belongs in. The lessons will be numbered, so if something goes into spam, you’ll know to go fish it out of there.

(And of course, if you’re not digging it, just unsubscribe. We’ll still be friends.)

This e-course is unlike anything I’ve put together or seen before. We’re going to combine a little bit of feeling good (because hey, life is better when we feel good) with manageable, concrete steps and some community accountability to keep your ball rolling. Then we’ll see how that’s working and adjust as needed.

Let’s make it epic.

See you in a few days. 🙂

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