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Today at a glance:
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 54 seconds
Over the last few weeks, I’ve hosted dozens of coaching calls with the most engaged subscribers of the WISER Newsletter.
There’s been particular themes that have come up during these discussions.
Today I want to share one of them that will help you with whatever you’re trying to achieve in this season.
My secret weapon that has helped me to build Wisdom Made Easy over the last 2 years:
Confidants.
Google defines a confidant as someone that you can trust with a secret matter.
I have a group chat with 2 other visual creators that I’ve been able to trust with the highs and lows of my experience of creating online.
Pejman Milani (of Milani Creative) and Hannah Wilson (of Quoted Visually) are both delightfully talented visual artists with a remarkable skill for sharing visual metaphors that turn complex principles into easy to understand graphics.
They also happen to be both lovely, funny, insightful and caring.
As I’ve shared my experience with them, they have shared theirs with me.
We’ve been able to accelerate one another’s growth by being able to confide in each other, and I believe that you can experience this too if you’re able to identify your confidants.
Allow me to share a few benefits of having someone to confide in:
🎶 An Underrated Benefit of Confidants
I originally had the idea for this week’s newsletter after speaking to one of you!
John is a remarkable man with a kind heart and a passion for composing music.
But when I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago in the aforementioned coaching calls, he shared that he was struggling with motivation and procrastination which was preventing him from composing any new pieces.
So as part of our coaching call, I set him the challenge: a new track in 2 weeks.
This brings me to one of the biggest benefits of having people that you can confide in: Accountability.
There’s something incredibly powerful about knowing that someone else knows about your struggles.
It’s even more powerful when they drop you a message to see how you’re getting on.
I’ve found that this has been so helpful as I’ve built Wisdom Made Easy.
PJ and Hannah have kept me accountable to some of my aspirations over the last couple of years.
I’m not sure I would have posted my first YouTube video without them checking in with me about it.
I have been able to achieve more personally because we’ve been travelling together, and I think it’s the same for them both too.
And what about John?
He made a stunning, moving track - 1 day early too!
To listen to it, click here:
Now, take a moment to reflect:
📝 Can you think of a time where you have benefitted by having someone keeping you accountable?
⛏️ Striking Gold!
But that’s enough from me!
Instead of hearing just my experience this newsletter issue, I asked my confidants to help me write this week’s issue!
I asked PJ to share his view on what our 3-way group chat means to him, and here is what he had to say:
“Being a creator is like digging in a deep dark mine alone.
Sometimes you find gold and sometimes you find dust.
But sometimes the dust is sparkly and you need someone to help you see even though it’s shiny, it’s not the gold you set out to find.
And sometimes you need someone to tell you that you look like crap cause you’ve been working in the mines too long! 😆
The neat thing about a community is it doesn’t need to be large to be meaningful. A group of 3 is perfect.
You can be different in almost everything:
Age
Experience
Season of life
All you need is ONE THREAD, one shared experience, to be close-knit. Someone who understands the pain of only finding dust and celebrates with you when you find gold.”
📝 Do you have someone who celebrates with you when you find gold?
☝️ The Only Way is Up!
And here’s what Hannah had to say about the benefits of our 3-way group chat:
“Having a group chat with Michael and PJ has changed my life, and I’m not joking haha.
I find it so beautiful that visualising ideas has brought us all together.
We are at different stages of our lives, which means we are able to provide valuable perspectives and mentorship to each other, daily support that would cost thousands if we hired a coach!!
I have felt seen and understood. There are conversations we CAN have with our peers, but CAN’T have with friends and family and this is OK.
Creating a space to have these conversations is really important. When we feel like we have people to turn to always, we don’t feel alone.
Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride and community support is how we succeed!
I can also see a direct correlation between all of the voice notes I’ve sent in the group chat and my confidence in pitching my services and talking about what I do.
Getting comfortable saying things out loud has been the practice that I’ve needed to own my journey and trust my judgement.
I’ve just launched the Quoting Ideas Visually course and I have included voice notes in this, just like the ones I send in the chat.
I think that there is huge value in this informal delivery. It’s as if I am sending a message to a friend and it’s not preachy at all.”
If you’re sat there wondering:
“How do I find my confidants?”
Well let me know!
If this poll gets enough votes, I’ll write about how to identify suitable confidants in the next few weeks.
❓ How do I find my confidants?Would you like me to write a newsletter about how to identify suitable people to confide in? |
📝 Journal Prompts
• Do you have people that you can confide in?
• What is something that confidants could help you in?
• Are you able to identify suitable people to confide in?
Consider journaling through the above questions yourself.
✍️ What They’re Working On
Those of you that have followed this newsletter will know that I like to give an update on some of the bits that I’m working on here.
Instead, today I wanted to celebrate my confidants and share what they’re working on.
I regularly get asked “How do you make visuals?”
The best way to learn how to make captivating visuals is learn from the best.
That’s why I think you should check out PJ’s and Hannah’s courses.
PJ is a teacher by profession, and he’s already helped over 100 students to translate their ideas into eye-catching visual metaphors.
Soon he’ll be opening up live cohort #5 for enrolment.
Grab your spot here:
And if you’d rather do something at your own pace, Hannah has you covered!
She’s created a self-paced course that takes you through everything you need to know to create the stunning visuals that have helped her amas an audience of 150,000+.
Soon she’ll be relaunching the course, so to be the first to be notified when it goes live, click here:
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😊 Thank You!
Thanks for checking out this issue of the WISER Newsletter. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear it!
Simply reply to this email, and I will get back to you.
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Catch you in the next issue!
Thanks,
Michael
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