This was originally published as a newsletter update. If you’d like to receive those first, just head here and sign up :).
In my experience, the Internet has always been a portal of getting way-too-much-information from people you barely know.
That’s how I first fell in love with it on Google Reader and that’s how it’s remained in the back of my mind since I sat in the dark and muffled the modem sounds with a blanket so my parents wouldn’t know I was getting online.
My last too-personal update was in January, and I think it’s time to do another one because it feels like a million years ago.
This one is juicy just like the last one… I share the product I cancelled, my new favorite offer, my current OBSESSIONS, and what I’m learning about myself from the enneagram.
Another public re-shuffling with product
The Moonshot Machine membership got retired!
I know, I know. It’s a bummer. But I realized I didn’t have it in me to sell 24/7 and worry about renewals and track who has access to what.
I also don’t think it creates an exceptional experience for the learner to decide every month if they’re using the material enough to justify the investment. (A lot of people only do that because it’s “business model-friendly.”) So now everything is obnoxiously simplified over at B2BWI!
There are a handful of workshops and bundles you can secure as a one-off. Then there are two main programs you can use as an on-ramp into the training catalog and monthly live events. Everything (except coaching) is lifetime access.
Side Quests
- ”Price It, Sell It, Write It” Bundle
- Client Magnet Bundle
- B2B Writing Template Bundle
- Process Magic Bundle
Main Quests
- B2B Writing Seminar
- B2B Business-Building Seminar
- 1:1 Coaching (Invite only 😉 )
My approach to marketing is basically this:
It’s easy to get to know me and my teaching style on LinkedIn and YouTube and by email. It’s easy to check out a low cost training program and see if it resonates with you. And then it’s easy to lean into momentum with the longer programs without worrying about “losing access” when life gets life-y… it’s just easy. (Easier for me, too ;-))
I got to nerd out
B2BWI has always been a shell corporation for me to get to re-live my Linguistics 101 class from college. The other week, I got to do it for real, finally. The ”Better than a bot” workshop was experimental and time-consuming and so, so good.
My surprise favorite was “forms” — I find myself re-reading sentences I come across and trying out different variations in my head, just like we practiced. It feels like a new awareness and superpower, which is exactly what I had promised.
I’ll continue down this line of nerdery for June’s live session, (members only) about advanced style… and I’ve got a heck of a book list to get through before then, which is OK because that’s my love language.
1:1 Coaching is my most popular offer
I am delighted by enrollments in the seminars and workshops and the results people are getting from them. And I am even more overjoyed by the response I got to offering 1:1 coaching for the first time (last December, I think).
People really like getting personalized advice. I guess it’s not that surprising when you think about it!
Coaching really satisfies my need to see the greatness in people and embolden them to bring it out into real life (which also… spoiler alert… is a strength of my enneagram type).
I can love you while you’re not living up to your potential, and celebrate with you when you take those small steps towards being brave. It’s just… it’s the best.
When I think back on all I’ve learned from Ed, about business and about myself, I am really humbled to realize I get to be that person for the dozen or so people I’ve coached this year.
When I see them land the client, raise the price, or realize a deeper level of their own best path forward… it genuinely feels like my own victory. As good as if it happened to me.
Perhaps my favorite part is that it’s really about life, not always about freelancing.
I’m working with some people who are planning their great escape for a few months from now… but also some people who are discerning if an in-house role is good for them and how to be competitive about it. And still others to refine their niche and get more clear about their positioning so they can have a more satisfying worklife.
It’s all fair game as long as they feel bonkers-positive about where they are a couple months down the line.
Learning about myself with the Enneagram
I am about three years into deepening my understanding of the enneagram and my type and all the good personal development that can come from that.
Skip this section if you don’t care about the enneagram, haha!
Some interesting personal observations:
- I’m a classic 8 on the inside, but I realized I was super duper socialized to be more like a 2 and a 3. That’s why I seem so cuddly and in touch with my emotions 😉
- I can type a 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, from a mile away, and I’m surrounded by them, so I’ve made them my main study
- I know next to nothing about 1, 6, 7, 9s, and I’m curious about them, but it might have to wait. I rarely meet them (just a 6 or 7 here and there)
- Tom LaHue’s podcast of “the highs and lows” of each type is fascinating and I’ve listened to half of them already
- I also recreationally read ”The Wisdom of the Enneagram” for fun, so that’s the kind of person I am now, apparently.
- Common to my type is that “intensity for intensity’s sake” is a big problem for me. I only realized how that feeds into my work-life imbalance recently (not to mention my “work as escapism” from family stress). It’s making me re-evaluate a lot about what I’m doing and what I actually want from my workday… verses what I’ve compelled myself to want because it gave me the intensity I craved.
- Understanding the nuances of an 8 in stress and a 4 in stress (my husband) has given me breakthroughs in communicating and troubleshooting life with toddlers. It’s still hard, but I have some practical things to try and some clear buttons to stop pressing (hah!).
- Learning about my stress type (5) has been revolutionary! It’s so easy to identify when I’m stressed and when I’m dipping into bad habits… and that allows me to shorten the stress cycle so I can get back to myself much faster.
- Similar to a need for intensity, I also have a need to “fight” for things… even if there’s no fight. It’s been awkward but worthwhile to start looking at tasks or thoughts and ask myself, “What if I used less effort on this? What would this look like if it was easy? Do * I * need to be the person to fix this?”
I’m a bit pen obsessed
Listen, when your life feels like a constant tropical storm warning and you have to carry around sandbags that kick you back, you need something fun and light to enjoy.
For me, this past year, that’s been pens and stationary.
(A real return to roots, because I have some fond memories of discovering school supplies in elementary and middle school. I would make little figures with sticky tack named Bob, Bob Jim, and Jim Bob and… well, I’ll spare you the elaborate plays I would act out inside my desk during class.)
I fell deep and hard for fountain pens and Japanese paper brands and added to my collection almost everywhere I visited (which was quite a lot this year).
My modest collection includes…
- TWSBI Eco Italic nib (Jade with Rose Gold)
- TWSBI Eco Bold nib (White with Chrome)
- LAMY Scala Fine nib (Birthday pen 😉 )
- Parker Sonnet Fine nib (Gift from my brother)
- And of course my very first fountain pen… LAMY Safari Fine nib that I didn’t know how to write with and so bent it a lot and it’s a lot more like a medium, and I love it 😂
My inks are growing but not outrageous yet.
The most notable one is Sailor Waga-Uguisu (a spring green) I got for Mother’s Day (with the italic TWSBI) and I haven’t been able to stop writing with it every day. It’s so satisfying and pretty. I also picked up Noodler’s Brown 42 and it’s just about my soul mate ink. I feel like myself when I’m jotting with that.
If you like stationary and fountain pens, you might enjoy this tour of my collection and this one about stationary from YouTube. I shop at JetPens a bunch.
I have no idea where this will take me for my next pen. I’m really intrigued by flexible nibs and nibs with a lot of variation. I also wouldn’t mind a massive, massive nib. I’ll keep watching YouTube videos and I bet I’ll be trying to go to a pen show in the next year or so…
But hey, it’s work related!
Listen, I NEED that extensive pen and stationary collection, because I send a welcome note to everyone who enrolls in something (if they give me their address).
I recently upgraded to “global forever” stamps so I would stop using 3x forever stamps for every note abroad… shout out to 🐝s in Australia, Spain, Philippines, Scotland… we’re global, babe!
P.S. Now taking suggestions for community nomenclature, as Greesonbach-ie (a la Swiftie) doesn’t quite resonate. B2BWI 🐝s is like a really sad, underfunded college sports team. What would you call us?
Albums I’ve had on repeat
These albums have gotten me through work sprints, sad times, joy, and stress-cleaning the house:
- Black Bear and Dive Deep by Andrew Belle
- Making Mirrors by Gotye
- Midnights by Taylor Swift
- Purpose by Justin Bieber
- Chill House and Today’s Chill Apple Music Playlists
- Wet Leg by Wet Leg
- Talk by Daniel Johns
- Surrender by Maggie Rogers
- Jump In by Atomic Drum Assembly
- And of course… Brain.FM
Making up for lost travel time
With my health in a much better place and fewer, you know, life-threatening diseases to be afraid of on the mass scale, I traveled a bit more this year!
I went to Phoenix and back twice (don’t ask me why everyone chose to host things in Phoenix…). Once for a relaxing-style retreat with other moms in business, and once for a writing business retreat.
(The first retreat was an explosion of nature. I’ll never forget waking up to the cold Phoenix night and hearing coyotes yipping and cackling outside the window. Or watching hummingbirds go bananas on a flowering tree for 20 minutes.)
Some watercolor sketches:
I also got to enjoy a Totally For-Business Content and Business Strategy Executive Retreat with two friends I’ve come to love via Voxer (missing our last amigo because of a new baby and a long flight… but we’ll get you next year Emma!).
It was absolutely, totally for business, and involved very, very little laughing, shopping, and eating delicious food at NoGlu, my now favorite gluten free establishment:
Finally, in a series of unfortunate events and delays, my husband and I ended up doing an overnight roadtrip from Virginia to Rhode Island for the Taylor Swift concert a few weeks ago in May.
My plan for a relaxing Boston weekend was scrapped for a frantic, traffic-filled drive… but it was perfect all the same. We got to catch up on some MUCH needed 1:1 time, and Taylor literally rocked my face off (but after extensive reconstruction surgery, it is back on and healing fine).
Growing pleasures
“Growing pains” is a thing, why not growing pleasures? I dunno. Family life is still very challenging to me. The noise. The mess. The constant (constant) stimulation and interruption.
If you need a drawer closed, they will open it. If you need it open, they will close it. It’s that x every tiny element of your entire life, forever.
I know on some level I should just get over it, but it all causes me a lot of physical and mental anxiety, and some days I handle it better than others.
I keep my office as pristine and beautiful as I can, and that’s my respite right now. I’ve also started sleeping on the kid’s bunkbed while they take over the master bedroom with my husband, which buys me about 7-8 hours of true solitude and alone time each day. This is the closest I’ve gotten to weeks of full night’s rests (that’s a lot of plurals) since 2017. So I’ll take it.
That said… Look at these little angels. Best, hardest thing I’ve ever done.
There’s a lot more
I’m leaving out so much, like talking at the Think Tank Retreat, co-hosting the podcast with Belinda Weaver for the past few months, my improv student showcase, making “chicken books” with my kids by cutting out photos of chickens from a chicken magazine, being on track for a $100K year for B2BWI…
I’m also leaving out a lot of the lows, like doubting every step I’ve ever taken, feeling run down at home and work, feeling put off by LinkedIn influencer “megastars,” getting bullied for being overweight on my second flight out to Phoenix, and thrashing my head against a wall of writer’s block for client work on and off throughout the year.
What can I say… any path you choose, there’s going to be highs and lows. My path has highs and lows. Pick your highs and pick your lows, my friends!
Prickles and pickles,
Sarah G.