Watsup everyone, 

All two of you, lol. 

Zack and Yehoshua, the OG’s here. 

Will be fun when this has 100K subs to look back. 

We’ll throw a party, boys, on me. Lol. 

Not ashamed at all to declare that I have exactly 2 subs on my Newsletter. That's what happens when you launch something. 

I have a really exciting plan here, that I will share in full in the near future. 

Some long term developments, some short term pushes. A lot of good stuff. 

For now, the growth of this newsletter will be a key focus during the next 12-24 months. 

Quick Intro:

In general this newsletter will be a blend of Psychology, Business and Marketing, Spirituality and Religion, Health and Wellness, and much more.

Eclectic, I know, but don’t worry, it will always be exciting! 

My aims are as follows: 

• To make this deeply valuable for you. This free newsletter should make you a profit. 

• To share what's working in all of the above mentioned categories. 

• To be real and transparent. 

• To both inspire and educate growth. 

I am very passionate about education, I think the world is going through enourmous shifts right now in the world in every way, and this specifically resonates in the world of information and education. 

My aim is to provide education that I found extremely valuable and hard to come by. 

With that being said, the topic of today's work will be how I discover and find my book topics. 

A topic near and dear to my heart, book writing, it’s something I could nerd out about for a while.

Though you may not be an author, here’s how this will benefit you:

1. The creative process - that being - From raw creationism to something being ‘Market Successful’, is extremely similar no matter the category of work.
   
   I work with entrepreneurs in building their companies. I help them routinely make breakthroughs and developments of all sizes, ranging from 5 figures to 7 figures, depending on the size of the business.
   I promise you, the core principles are the same. (My book drives my business)
   
   

2. If you are a builder or creative of any type, I got you. I understand the process and hopefully this can help you in your process be more productive from a production standpoint as well as a business standpoint. (NO MORE STARVING ARTISTS!)
   

This is going to be a series, so I will not put everything-everything in this one post. 

But today we will discuss the first “Embryo” stages of any creative work. 

To put this in context, let me discuss the lifecycle of something as it begins and how I know what to commit myself to. 

In a world of infinite options, what do we commit ourselves to? 

As I mentioned above, this will look life “Raw creationism - Market Success” 

That exists as a linear progression of development. 

Obviously, Market success is not “The End”, just like getting your black belt is not the end of your martial arts journey. But it obviously represents a successful checkpoint. 

For me to help make the point allow me if you would, to share a quick story. 

You might have had a similar experience in some way. 

I was 19, alone somewhere in the middle of Utah.

I was in the middle of a crusade against college education, journeying from college to college in my old 1998 Saturn I had bought second hand (or fourth hand) 

Thankfully, that car did me good. Held up with zero issues as I zig zagged my way coast to coast

And that was a good thing, cause I had almost Zero money. 

I started the trip with about $3K I had saved up from waiting tables. 

Between Gas and Food, I calculated that I’d have enough to make it on a one way journey to California from my home state of Maryland. 

I was fully expecting not to come back. My plan was to work-trade on some Vineyards in Napa Valley as a last resort. My dream since I was about 12 was to own a vineyard.

Why does a 12 year old in Maryland have a dream to own a vineyard? 

That's a great question… No idea. 

(Truthfully, I think it’s been a spiritual calling, but we’ll save that for another time.) 

I started by going up the East Coast, hitting Boston before punching it out West. 

One of the things I didn’t anticipate was how much time I would have on my hands. 

For whatever reason, that never crossed my mind. 

I went from working fulltime to doing this documentary project about college education interviewing people all across the country, but there was a lot of between time. 

With very little money but a deep curiosity and plenty of boredom, I found myself hanging out in Barnes and Nobles across the United States, reading as many books as I could for free while sitting on the floor in between the isles.

I would read full books in the store and put them back on the shelf. 

If you ever got a book that looked used from B&N, I apologize. 

I got a bug to start doing some creative writing. I was decent at it in high school and figured now is as good a time as ever. 

I was definitely in a romantic, beatnik period of my life and figured i’d lean all the way in. 

So there I was, alone in a cafe in Utah. 

I wrote. 

And wrote. 

And wrote. 

And before I knew it, I had a novel in front of me. 

I wish I could say there was more to the process than that, but theres wasn’t. 

Well actually there was. 

A lot of caffeine. 

Like excessive amounts of caffeine. 

But otherwise, the scenario caught me, and a book flew from my fingers at breakneck speed. 

It was a novel, and during the process I must have processed about half of my childhood trauma. 

It was very cathartic, and basically left me with my mouth on the floor.

You have to understand, I sat there thinking, “let me try doing some writing.”

And then what proceeded to happen almost happened without me involved. 

I was like an observer. 

It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life and since then I’ve had a very similar experience with many of my other books. 

I wrote a novel in about 3 days, broken up into multiple highly caffeinated sessions that would last for hours on end. 

Afterwards I would collapse in my car and pass out in the parking lot of the Starbucks. 

I must have looked like a freakshow, I was, and still kind of am. 

But boy, was that a special experience.

After that I knew I would be a writer. I must be a writer. 

This is something I will do for life and I will eventually be commercially productive with it. That may take 20 years, but I'm ok with that.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had an experience like that, and it’s ok if you haven’t. 

I don’t want to compare experiences here, it’s for sure not about that, but it is to tell you that at the age of 19 I had something that I knew I would hold onto forever. 

I knew I was in this for the long haul. 

And THAT, is something that I’m willing to bet that you do have. 

Even if you aren’t aware of it. 

(Everyone has it in some capacity, oftentimes we aren’t aware of it, or we judge the thing too much.) 

So once I became aware of this life companion of mine. Writing. 

I made a space for it. 

I made a space in my mind, in my curiosities, in my life. 

Practically speaking I got notebooks and opened up a Google Drive folder dedicated to writing.

I stuck the first draft of my novel in the Google drive and then opened up more folders in the Google Drive. 

The goal was to capture anything that struck me. 

Ideas. 

Storylines. Both fictional and non-fictional. 

Feelings. 

Emotions. 

Crazy experiences. 

Interviews. 

I would collect everything and put it into these folders and after some time, I would start seeing themes and patterns. 

This is how both of my non-fiction books took shape.

A slow amalgamation of ideas and concept congealing together like a slow fermentation of the freshly squeezed ideas into the mature wines they would become.

And indeed, this fermentation process, i.e. the writing of a book, typically does take a year at least. 

And thats if your consistently dedicated to it. 

My recent book took me 6 years. 

Both of my non-fiction books came in a different manner. 

They came like flashes of insight. I already described the first novel in that cafe in Utah. 

The second one came while I was on a 10 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat in the mountains of California. 

On day 5 it hit me like a tidal wave, I was “Searching” for my next book idea, open to the next concept, and deep in this joinery it hit me. 

I basically had a vision of the book and lived it for an entire day, walking through each scene as if I were in some live role playing scene. 

It was an incredible experience.

At some point though with all of these books, I got to a point where I knew, I must write this book. 

It must get done.

This is the idea and I have to create it.

Getting to that point was different with each book, and getting to that point in my life where I knew that Book Writing would be the commitment thatI made in my life was also a process.

It was a deep process of searching, being open, actively pursuing, having convictions, and being flexible and open to feedback. 

A strange concoction of contradictory elements, yet still it created this recipe and mindset where I am determined to search and find a topic within this area of my life, and I have no idea what that's going to be. 

Before the commitment to book writing, it was a commitment to ‘figure myself out’, a journey of self exploration, I have no idea what i’m about to uncover, but I know it will change my life.

That was what happened as I drove out of my driveway in Maryland at the age of 19.

I was on a one way journey, I might come back to this house at some point, but I will be a different man. 

And indeed I was.

Every time I launch into a new book, I embark on a one way journey.

I don’t know whats going to happen, but we will change because of this process I am embarking on.

It’s a powerful mindset to have. 

It’s also a scary one, because it denies certainty. 

It denies safety and comfort. 

It says no to a “Guarantee” it says hell no to Predictability. 

And that is indeed terrifying, but it’s also where you can go to harvest the gold living in your world. 

The gold in your consciousness, the gold in your potential. 

I’m grateful os ay that after 10+ years of actively mining for gold in my life, I feel that I am only now starting to hit a deep flow that is powerful on multiple levels.

It feels good, but it came from a lot of love and blessing from God, guiding my path, support from friends and family, and the qualities and traits I’ve described in this essay.

As I mentioned in the beginning. 

You can forget about book writing, most people out there will never write a book, thats not whats important here.

But EVERYONE faces these challenges on a day to day basis. 

Who am I? 

What am I doing? 

Can I do this? 

This is challenging for me, am I capable? 

Am I putting myself in the right space? 

These are questions that ferment over time, but my question to you is are you pointing in the direction that you know to be true on a deep level.

Don’t judge that trajectory. Just recognize it.

I have some good discussion about this in my book Cultivate Thyself, where we discuss tapping into strengths, stacking the deck in your favor, being financially successful with the innate gifts, and reverse engineering a life that is purposeful and meaningful for you on many levels.

You can check out the book here. 

Until next time, have a beautiful day. 

Be nice to someone and go crush! 

Talk to you soon! :)