Play isn't a distraction. It's essential fuel to a life worth living. Life is too short to be living in constant fear and anxiety. We all know how it feels to enter into the flow state where everything disappears. You are simply present to the moment fully engaged and letting it... flow. I guess I'm like a surfer that doesn't surf. Chasing the waves of flow. Having a hobby that allows you to enter that state is fuel to your life. At least It has been for me. I'm an athlete. But I let that part of me die after college football days. Then I started playing basketball just a couple years ago. And now pickleball. I can't believe I missed out on nearly a decade of not playing sports. It's such a part of who I am It causes me to feel surprised I've gone that long without it. I played golf a bit but it's not the same fast paced action I enjoy a bit more. Honoring the part of you that desires play is a good start. Realizing it makes you better at all the other things you value in life, your spouse, kids, business.. To actually value it and not say stupid stuff like "I don't have time. I gotta work and pay bills man what fairy tail land are you living in." Or "must be nice." And damn right it is. Very nice. So what is it for you? Everyone has a different ways they play.

As you may know. Freedom is the North Star in my business and life. I aim to optimize for max leverage and free time. On the flip side, I’m willing to do whatever I gotta do to get results. And a good ol book a call funnel still works great for the solo entrepreneur. I just can’t run it sustainably without having to hire a sales team which I’ve done in the past and just not willing to do. I don’t like managing people. When I started my niche consulting business, GLP-1 Launch, a little over 8 months ago I started with the 1-1 book a call funnel. The math works but it takes a toll on your soul. No matter how much “it works on paper” I hate when someone books on my calendar and doesn’t show up. It takes up mental space in my mind to prepare for an upcoming call that day… Only to have them not show up. It’s the worst! My show rates were about 40%. Having a day full of 5-7 calls to only have a few show up is just discouraging no matter how positive you are. Once again, gotta do what you gotta do to get the ball rolling. Still sucks though. Another downside of 1-1 for me is it’s emotionally draining. I find myself dead and uninspired to take more calls. Part of that is my personality… I’ve always wanted to try “one to many selling” through webinars but felt so unqualified like “this was for those big time entrepreneurs.” I was afraid I couldn’t make it work financially because I was going to suck and I believed, “nobody is gonna buy this for thousands of dollars without spending time with me 1-1.” But I do have a core value of “everything is a test.” And I had hope that, “if I could even keep my show rate and close rate close to what they are now it would be worth the transition.” So I went for it. I opened up two time slots per week on my calendar to hold my “live masterclass.” I prepared a very rudimentary presentation. I definitely took longer than I needed to create the slide deck on Canva. I didn’t follow all the “webinar secrets” frameworks. I just put the necessary info about my opportunity in a slide deck and went for it.

A calm nervous system... Usually an ignored goal or outcome of a business. Unfortunately, the opposite is usually true for entrepreneurs. Constantly stressed in fight or flight mode. Always scared of "losing it all." Lol that's been my default experience after 14 years of owning businesses. Primary emotions of fear and lack. I think the solution is two fold. 1. Managing thoughts. "taking every thought captive." Disciplining what we focus on inside. The word says "above all else guard your heart, for out of it flow the issues of life." That means above everything. The word puts "guarding your heart" as the highest priority in life. Which makes sense to me. The inner world is what we can most control compared to external circumstances. 2. Building your Freedom Business in a way that optimizes for a more calm nervous system. That's why I'm always looking for higher leverage systems to install in my business. From the way we advertise, sell, and deliver our solutions in business. Thats why I moved from one on one sales to one to many. It's why I love paid ads. Or YouTube. Digital products.... All great ways to tap into more leverage in business which ultimately should lead to a more Free Life. More margin and space to be. To have hobbies you enjoy. For me it's Pickleball. I play at 4-5 days a week and love it. Trips with the family. Business is inevitably stressful but it doesn't have to be all the time. I think you can get to a place where it's not predominantly stressful. I don't have that reality 100% but I'm definitely optimizing for it. That's the journey I'm on. Building my Freedom Business so I can live the Free Life. Been on it for 14 years and will continue to be on it the rest of life. I hope to continue to achieve some breakthroughs so I can share with everyone else what works for me. Lets get it!

Most people think their ads aren’t working. That’s usually not the real problem. The real problem is they don’t know their numbers. So everything becomes a guess. Guessing what’s broken. Guessing what to change. Guessing whether they should panic or “just give it more time.” That’s when business starts to feel exhausting. Every bad day feels personal. Every slow week feels like proof something’s wrong. When you know your numbers, all of that goes away. You stop reacting emotionally and start responding logically. A bad week becomes a data point, not a crisis. You can see exactly where things are leaking and fix that one thing. Some weeks are up. Some are down. That’s normal. It doesn’t mean anything by itself. Numbers give you perspective. Perspective gives you peace of mind. If you want growth without the constant stress, stop guessing. Start tracking.

"Discipline your disappointment" A key nugget I got from Tony Robbins live free event recently. Man this is huge. For me this pattern has eaten my lunch over the years. The shame of always feeling disappointed. Not being able to get out of the feeling and low energy because of it. Feeling like a victim and "why me" attitude. But he reframed it so well... "the only people that aren't disappointed ever aren't doing shit." The key is disciplining your disappointment and not letting it stop your drive and vision for the future. And that brings it all back to state. State of mind and state of being. Prayer, meditating on the word, moving your body. The simple foundational habits that make a world of difference. Thats what it means to discipline your disappointment to me. To take the word of Truth to the circumstance and choose to trust once again. Even when everything around you tells you the opposite of what you have been hoping for. "Gotta have high high hopes for a livin" Love that song! Let's get our hopes up again. It's what makes us alive. What's the alternative? Live in self protection, cynical, dead inside?