Talk To The People

Last week was one of those weeks.

No, not one of those.

One of those, where I got insight after insight. Aha-moment after Aha-moment. It was one of those weeks where I was thinking to myself: Why didn’t you do that MUCH earlier? It was one of those weeks where I realized again: that it is the simple, obvious things that move the needle.

The simple things. Not the complicated things.

And no-I did not meditate all day or went on a retreat or something. Even though I did that on Sunday with a solid 4 hours of Vipassana meditation practice. It did contribute to the week full of insights. One could say, I ended it on a high.

The real cause for the revelations:

I stopped doing the complicated things.

I started doing the simple, obvious thing.I just talked to the people.

Now here comes the uncomfortable truth I could not run away from anymore. I’ll share it with you because if we want to see a world filled with more authenticity and vulnerability, we need to create it. Be it.

So here’s what happened.

At the end of last year, I created the onboarding form for the Slow Down Club.

The intention was to:

a) Give people the feel of what I envision SDC to be, without having experienced any kind of paid service.

b) Give people who resonate with the idea of slowing down the chance to connect with me and the idea of SDC deeper.

c) Create a mailing list of people who are really “interested” in the idea. I was not interested in getting many subscribers fast. I did not want it to be “just another newsletter”.

I did that because I thought: If there are people in there who are invested in an idea, the probability of them being interested in one of the upcoming events increases.

So I asked myself the question: How can I bring something that’s on my mind to someone in the form of an online flow? I had never seen something like it before, so creating it was a challenge on its own.

I managed to create it surprisingly fast. It felt like something was ready to pour out. The like you open a dam. The water is already there for a while, yet it feels like a new thing when the locks are opened.

Then, I saw people coming in. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you went through the flow too. When I read through the answers, my heart cracked open.

“Yes! People are getting value. And a good 60% even selected that they want to slow down together with others. Yay!” - This is what I said to myself.

Self-empowering language is a vital thing.

And then my friends, I made a big mistake.

I stopped.

I leaned back, bathed in the positive feedback, and ignored the golden nuggets on the plate right in front of me: I did not talk to the people. I did not talk to you. I did not take the conversation further.

Not to pitch. Not to sell.

To LEARN MORE, WHILST - let’s use the words of Rick Rubin here: ”Making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now”

I got comfortable in seeing the first positive feedback and did not continue to do what I love, to the best of my ability, here and now.

Which would have been engaging in powerful 1:1 conversations.

That’s what I love. That’s what I could do all day.

Two weeks ago, it clicked.

After a powerful mentoring session with my trusted advisor Meir, I made a visible and an invisible choice.

The invisible choice was to meet the shadow sides of me, which led to the stopping and the business sabotaging in the first place. Shine light on them, so I can continue with the quest. My intuition always delivers, and it says: keep going. People need it. You need it. I think I will never be amazed by the power of the light of awareness.

The visible choice was to now actually have these conversations. Approach everything with an open mind. Leave your ego at the door. Allow the collective wisdom and intelligence to shape Slow Down Club.

I finally started to talk to the people. And last week was one of those weeks. I gained a lot of clarity on many levels. I collected Aha-moment after Aha-moment.

And the best of it all: I realized how these conversations fire me up, and how valuable they are for both. They sparked completely new ideas.

Like doing these kinds of two-way conversations in public. Like doing a podcast where founders help each other - live.

How does that sound?

This only happened, because I made a step. The way unfolds as you go. Maybe I should get a tattoo of that.

What’s present for you when you read this?

And do you talk to the people enough? If not, what’s the struggle?

Write back and let me know.

Much love, Christian