Welcome back to another newsletter. As always, the format is simple:
- The latest from me
- Ideas I’m thinking about
- Resources that are upgrading my quality of life
Let’s get into it.
The latest
We have officially started doing calls within group consulting. And boy, are they ever filled with gold. I highly recommend you tap in! 💯
As for free content, this time we have absolutely nothing! Lol. If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted videos in 2 months, it’s because I’m spending so much of my time building out the consulting infrastructure and writing material for the library right now. I miss making videos and can’t wait to get back into posting on YouTube consistently, but consulting is my top priority.
Now, an ask for you… I’m working on the return of the podcast and I want to know — what questions might you want me to answer in a Q&A? DM me on Instagram (@joshmoxey) and let me know. Or don’t, and I’ll create an outline of things that I think you’ll want to know. Lol.
Ideas
A leap of faith isn’t always successful… but how will you respond afterwards? I would have loved to sit here and tell you that everything went to plan with consulting; that everything is absolutely booming… but things haven’t worked as fast as I had hoped. Such is life, it’s on me. I talk about this more in an upcoming podcast episode, but the TLDR version is that I didn’t prioritize effectively enough. I took too long to work through past content and didn’t give myself enough time to build up the consulting infrastructure. So, I didn’t generate the results I was looking for, ran out of money, and had to take an honest assessment of what my next steps were. So I’ve returned to freelance marketing, and going forward I’ll be using this to keep me afloat while I continue to build out my brand + consulting business. And I’m good with this because I’m playing a bigger and longer game than anyone knows.
Be willing to do what’s required to make your vision work, even if that means temporarily going “backwards”. While I’m still glad I took a step away from freelance because of what was advanced within content creation, consulting and myself, in retrospect, it appears that I may have jumped too early. What I’m beginning to realize is that it’s usually a better move to be patient and eat shit longer than you need to, using your source of income on the side to build what matters most to you. If it means a greater long-term result, don’t be scared to go “backwards” in the short term.
More often than not, things take longer than you anticipated. If it’s worth it, be patient, stay the course, eat shit and do what’s required for as long as it takes. This is not the end of my pursuit, but rather a temporary setback. Whether this next phase lasts a month or multiple years, it matters not. The change? My time and energy will be temporarily divided. But I’ll do what’s required to keep this vision alive and continuously advance while also using this situation to my advantage. And as of right now, I can already see that this gives me a great opportunity to become elite at prioritization, time management and managing multiple projects at the same time.
Stop worrying about giving “too much” value earlier on in a venture. In the early days of a venture, I think it’s silly to overthink and stress about the value exchange. “Am I giving away too much for free? Am I charging enough?” Of course, these are valid topics to cover when it’s time to optimize your business down the line. But in the beginning, it’s far more important to be in the game, getting as much experience as possible, building case studies, getting testimonials and optimizing every aspect of your business with real clients and real customers. Instead of questioning if you’re giving “too much value”, throw so much value at new prospects that they’d be a fool to say no to your offer. And throw so much extra value at existing clients that they can’t help but tell all their friends about it. Sure, you might be “losing out” on some short-term dollars, but more than anything — it’s an investment into long-term business growth. P.S. I used to avoid this period like the plague because of my ego and some bad advice. But now, I fully embrace it because the faster I go through this temporary period of “giving away too much value” and working for less than I believe I should be getting, the faster I can utilize the experience, case studies and social proof to fuel the next phase of the endeavour. But even afterwards, it’s still a tremendous strategy to continue giving more value than you’re receiving, while getting what you’re worth.
Giving out taste tests is critical to getting buy-in from people earlier on. Before you have a strong enough authority and social proof, it’s very useful for to people experience your product or service firsthand. Let them experience it for themselves. Solve a real problem for them, give them real value, then they’ll understand its worth. A positive experience is far more powerful than anything your marketing could ever convey with words alone. If you’re serious about expanding your clientele and base, be willing to offer samples, taste tests, trials — whatever is required to push people over the edge and give them that experience so they can know for themselves. Short-term sacrifice for net score monumental gains.
When things don’t go to plan, be open to it. As life unfolds differently than expected, there is much to gain from it. It might present us with a better path than we previously imagined. It might clarify what we don’t want and give us the chance to course correct to something else. Whatever the case — surrender to what is, and either flow with it, adapt to it, learn from it or go back to your original plan with clarity. But the key here is to stay open and flow with life, rather than against it. It’s a way of being that makes all the difference, no matter what’s happening “externally.”
Nostalgia is often a trap. We can’t hold on to things forever, no matter what it is. Squeeze too tight, and you stop yourself from moving forward. Even if you were to return to the situation in question, it won’t ever be the same as it once was. The variables will have changed and the people involved will have changed, too. The only constant is flow, evolution and progress, so you’re better off surrendering, letting go and not romanticizing the past.
Time is neutral. Its passing works for you or against you based on how you utilize it. Consistently perform poor actions, and time will harm you. Consistently perform positive actions, and time will reward you.
If you’re exhausted and your lifts aren’t going up, it might be time for a deload. I was gassed last week and it was the first time my lifts weren’t going up the way they had previously. I had a bad feeling about it, so I asked my fitness coach if we could do a deload week. And boy, am I ever glad he said yes. We did 3 days off followed by 2 days at 50% of the lifts (without going to failure, which was strange for me as I train everything to failure), then another day off. Now, I’m feeling great, my mental and physical energy is back to where it should be, my lifts are once again progressing, and I’ve since hit some disgusting PRs. I’m amped.
Resources
Dune 2. I am absolutely obsessed with the Dune series. It lives rent-free in my head, and to me, this is my generation’s Star Wars. The sequel was so good that even as I watched it with a painful migraine, I still enjoyed it. But I cannot wait for the 3rd one as this movie was an act 2 inside of a greater trilogy — there’s so much left to be explored in this arc. Hans Zimmer nailed the soundtrack on this too, though it’s much darker than the first one. Days before the movie came out, I played it in a coffee shop and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself at how eerie everything became just based on what I was hearing lol. But the attention to detail on this score was tremendous, and it’s a must-listen with high-quality headphones.
Wrist straps for weight lifting. This has been a complete game-changer for pull days (especially with deadlifts). Since adding these, it’s completely changed how much I can RDL, and I’m putting up some stupid numbers because my grip is no longer giving out before the rest of my muscles do. I started with these barebones leather straps, but more recently I’ve shifted to these padded & gripped straps, which have been way more comfortable and effective. Big thanks to my fitness coach Andrew Russell for giving me the push to try out wrist straps!
Text replacements on Mac (and for Windows users, a tool like text expander). Instead of repeatedly typing out common URLs for my brand and business, I set up expansions for short key phrases (ie. “web/” to link my website) that autocorrect to the desired URL. To access it, open your settings, search for “text replacements”, and plug in shortcuts for whatever you’re repetitively typing, and ideally, something short and easy to type that doesn’t conflict with your normal day-to-day typing (think “shp/” instead of “shop” for a URL to your digital shop). It’s the little things.
Until next time, be well.
—Josh
