 When you're doing any creative project, especially a new business, procrastination is normal. And doubt is normal. I am now two months into my secret side project and I can tell you that I am re-experiencing what it's like for a beginner business owner to have doubt and, you know, waffling around and not really sure what direction to go, etc. So in this video, I'm going to share with you what I've been learning now for two months as I build my side project for two hours a week and all the emotional uncertainties and doubts and fears that are coming up and how I'm dealing with them. So I hope you'll find this beneficial. So first of all, when a new project begins, when you're building a new audience, you're creating something new, obviously, you don't know how it's all going to work out, right? So to think that I'm not going to do anything until I clarify what the exact direction is going to be, let's think about this. We have this opportunity in this moment right now to think about this consciously with intention, logically, rationally, wisely, okay? If somebody, not you, let's just think somebody else, you could point to me. I'm starting a new side project as a spiritual mentor. It's not my main business and I don't have any experience doing it. I have had a passion for it for years in terms of spiritual growth, personal growth. I've read so many books. I've talked to so many people. I've even included some of that content into my main business, but I've never done it officially as a business. So now I'm going to. I'm starting to. So since I don't have any experience doing it as a job or as a livelihood, I've never sold any products in that way. Do you think I should know exactly where I'm going to go before I start? Do you think I should know exactly what my brand is going to be and what the topics I'm going to talk about? Do you think I should be totally clear? Would you encourage me to stop doing anything until I'm totally clear first? Well, if you've been following my content, I hope your answer is no, George. You should just try it out. I mean, don't stop yourself because you don't know what direction you're going to go before you you try it, you know, because if you said, George, no, no, you got to figure everything out before you just take your first steps because what if, you know, the brand you build is not the right brand, et cetera, no, just you're going to your brand is going to shift. Well, I don't know if you're you experienced enough in business to tell me that. But that's what that's what I would tell somebody. And that's what I'm telling myself, right? So so this is this is really, really important. My brand may shift, but I made a decision already on what the name is going to be. I didn't delay. I just literally I've got my Facebook page. I've got the URL, everything set with the name. I'm not going to tell you what the name is because it's a secret project. I'm building a new audience without the benefit of my current audience. I don't want you to know because I don't want to bias my my experiment with all of you discovering it and somebody later will say, well, George, you didn't really build a new audience. You already had an old audience. I want to really experience what it's like just like in your shoes. You're building a new audience, right? You don't have the benefit of my audience. So I'm doing the same thing being anonymous and that new brand. Nobody knows who I am and building it from scratch. And so I don't I've got a brand, but it could change. The name could change. It really could. And even the even the topics could change over time is I try to figure out what I really mean by spiritual growth. So many possible directions to go. So instead of clarity and then create content and then build an audience, I meet that myth. I meet that objection with a deeper truth and the deeper truth is this. Only through movement do we find clarity. Only by trying do we figure out what we actually want to say or don't want to say. And we will always surprise ourselves to think that you're going to be clear before you you say anything online, before you write anything or make a video or figure out what your brand to think you're going to get clear. It's like it's like assuming that your current self will define how your future self will live and they will never change. You can't possibly believe that you understand even yourself that well, let alone all the societal changes that are going to happen in the next couple years. Right. So you don't know you don't really know yourself that well. You think you do, but you don't. Your future self knows your future self much better than your current self knows your future self. Think about that. So how can you determine a path and then say this is going to be the path? I'm clear on it. I'm going to just keep going. You're not going to change. Of course you're going to change. Of course you're going to change direction as you move. OK, so as I create content, I will figure out what I want to say. That's what I'm doing in my side project. I'm just trying stuff, trying stuff and then see what's going to come out. And in fact, every every time I work on it for two hours that week, I'm faced with a blank screen to write something. You know, and of course one of the lessons I've learned is that structure is especially important for a new venture. Do you have a structure? Please get a structure. However you need to read a book about, you know, about planning your business. Well, most business planning books are terrible to be honest with you. I think that most business planning books do take it from a corporate model and then MBA type of model. I have an MBA and most business plans are useless. OK, I'm going to give you a simple business plan right now. What is your content rhythm? Actually, I already have a business plan I've written for you. It's called the 10 year plan. And just go to georgecow.com slash blog slash 10 year plan. It's all written out there. That is that plan is better than anything I learned in my MBA for an authentic business for a solopreneur like you and me who wants to create a business with our passion. I didn't my MBA and any MBA person I've talked to didn't really learn that. So forget the MBA if you're thinking about that. Really, it's I learned more from trying to run my own business than ever did in my MBA program. Sorry for those of you who try to sell MBA programs. I was an admissions director then of my MBA program. I try to sell people into it now. Not that I regret it, but it's just that it's not what most business schools business schools are great for, you know, if you want to become an investment banker or if you want to become a corporate manager of business schools are and the textbooks are really set up for that. But if you want to become a entrepreneur, especially in today's age, especially as an authentic business, you're sharing your wisdom and making money doing that useless. So just go to my 10 year plan and that's my best shot at it right now. And that's what I'm following in my side project in my new business. So every, every time I work on my, my new business, I'm faced with a blank screen. It could go in any direction. And this is true for any blog post you write or any video you make your face with a blank screen, right? So let yourself surprise yourself at what happens when you simply show up and just start typing, just start typing. That's all you got to do. Just start typing. Anything, gobbledygook, what I'm going to say, what's interesting, what might be helpful to my audience, what, what is something that people might not know that's obvious to me? You know, I've taught an entire course on creating content. So if you have that course, go go into it, or if you just want to read my book, it's much cheaper than the course. It's five bucks on content. But just start typing. You know, even if you don't read my book or take my course, please just start typing. Any ideas that come to you, don't stop typing. Now you can take a break for a few seconds. But just start typing, please. And you will surprise yourself at what comes out. I think that's what, again, I'm learning that again in my side business, right? If I don't show up and just start speaking and typing, nothing is going to happen. If I believe the myth that I have to get clear first. So stop that, stop it, okay? Talking to myself in my, in my side business and talking to you as well possibly. Another, another doubt that I had come up is, what if it doesn't really make a difference? What if nobody shows up? What if I put in the effort and doesn't really help anybody? Does it really matter? That's two, because I'm having these doubts in my side project now. Right? What, what if it doesn't matter? Nobody cares. Nobody, well, the answer is not, I realize, well, therefore don't try because it doesn't matter anyway. Okay. The answer, actually, there is no answer to what if it doesn't make a difference? There is no answer to that question. The only thing that exists are the choices that I make. So I could try and try to build it or I could, you know, and stay curious and open and about what could happen if I build it. It could completely fail. And if it completely fails, I'll still reveal it to you and show you what, what a failed project looks like. But the truth is it never fails if I want to keep going. Of course, I can always. So one other tip I have for you here, similar to what I'm doing here is be bold and announce that you are doing it. And you don't have to reveal what it is yet, right? Because you can announce it and then not, not let people know what it is. I have an obligation to you now to let them let you know what it is, right? Whether it fails or succeeds, but you're not a business coach. Maybe you are, but, but if you're not doing it as an example for your audience, you can simply announce it as a responsibility and accountability. Your friends, your family, just the supportive ones. Don't tell the ones that are not supportive. Tell your supportive friends and family. Tell your supportive audience that you're building a side thing and to ask you about it or to, you're going to update them on it. You can reveal it if you want to. Like you're, you're not a business coach like me. You're not trying to have a real experiment of building a new project. You can tell your friends and family supportive ones what it is and they'll start to support you there, right? Most of you are, are, can do that. So, so if you announce it and if you let, ask people to ask you, tell people to ask you about it, they will ask you about it. You'll get a coach if you can afford that, but you can't just use your audience as an accountability factor so that they can keep you going. And when you're discouraged, let your audience know, hey, I'm discouraged right now. It doesn't, I'm not sure if I'm making a difference. Can you, can you let me know, you know, tell your, ask your friends, am I really making a difference? What direction do you think I should go into? I don't have the benefit of doing that because I can't tell any of you what it is for another year. You know, I'm going to try to be as long, go as long as possible without telling you so I can have a real experience of what it's like. So, so, so, you know, be careful of that idea of will it make a difference. It doesn't matter. It's only, what only matters is your own choice. Okay. The third objection that I had gave myself the third doubt that I have, the third thing that's holding me back is the thought after an intense work week, George, you deserve to just rest and play. Don't forget the stupid project, the site project. You know, come on, George, you just, you know, just relax, just relax. Don't worry about the, the site project thing. Nobody really cares about it. It's just your own little thing, you know. Of course, now that I've announced it to you, you care, you're really curious, but, but, you know, most of you are probably thinking about the same thing. Oh, I've worked so hard, you know. Let me just relax. I don't have to do the side business. Forget that. I have my family. Whatever it is you're busy with all week long, you know. You take care of family. You take care of people. You take care of yourself. You do your job or whatever it is you do. Like, you don't have energy, right? You don't have energy to do this, your, your business. You deserve to rest and play. All right. So how do we deal with that? Because it's true. Obviously, we need to rest and play. And I give myself plenty of time to do that. But the danger here is the words I deserve. It's dangerous. It's dangerous because the truth of the matter. And some of you may be feeling low self-esteem. I don't deserve it, right? But the truth of the matter is you deserve all of the self, self-care time, rest and play in the entire universe, in the entire world. You deserve all of it. Your soul, you know, you're kind of tapping into the truth of your eternal soul is that in the eternal world, you're going to have unlimited time to play and rest. But your soul has purpose. Well, I'm going to tell you my spiritual beliefs here and you could just translate into your own spiritual beliefs. Your eternal soul has purposely limited itself to this third dimensional, time-limited, deadline-driven reality called the human life. For 100 years, for 80 years, or however long you live, which is only a glimpse, only a tiny second in the life of your eternal soul, this 100 years. It seems so long, but it's just a tiny little blip in the life of your soul. So it's kind of like you going to the gym. You go to the gymnasium and you end up hanging out in the lounge and buying the meding machine snacks and just watching TV at the gym. You're like, ah, I've had such a hard work week. Here I'm at the gym. I'm just going to use their facilities to relax on the couch here. You have a gym membership. You went to the gym to work out. Yes, you go to the bathroom and you take a shower and you maybe rest for a few minutes before you get back on the treadmill or whatever. This life, earth life is the gym that you bought a membership to. Your soul is going to be resting a lot and playing a lot after this. We're not here in this earth life just for self-care. I think a mistake in the self-care movement is the elevating of self-care to be the purpose of life. It's not the purpose of sharing with you again my spiritual beliefs. You may totally disagree with me. The purpose of life is to grow. We're here in the gym. The purpose of life is to serve the greater whole and grow as a result of meeting challenges because there's lots of challenges as we try to serve the greater whole. And we learn about ourselves as we try to serve the greater whole. And so self-care is important as a respite. Just like when you go to the gym, you don't just work out until you're dead. You go to the bathroom. You rest for a while. You talk to some people. I don't know what you do to rest at the gym. But you rest, of course you do. And then you get back on the bike. And then you get back on the treadmill. And then you start the weights again. That's why we're here. So the purpose of life is not happiness and fun experiences. That's just a respite from the work, the work of serving the greater whole, discovering what our strengths are to serve the greater whole and to do the hard work of getting over our fears and getting past our comfort zone to serve the greater whole with our strengths that we are discovering bit by bit as we try to serve the greater whole. We don't figure out our strengths and figure out everything and then try to serve the greater whole. We discover what our strengths are as we try a bunch of different things and try to serve the greater whole and finding out what is the intersection between our passion, our strengths and the world's deep hunger, right? That intersection is what we figure out more and more as we try, as we try. And so I'm going to stop saying I deserve to rest and play on the weekends. Don't work so hard, George. No, no, I'm resting. I'm getting my own enough rest and self-care. Enough is the key word. I get enough rest and enough play. And then I do the real and deep play, you know, of creative creativity, of my side business, of my passion project. That's the real play. That's the deeper play. It's not easy because I face with a blank screen every single Saturday. But as I stretch myself and start typing and start speaking, not being afraid what people will think. What's this person going to think? What's who cares? Forget that person. Forget this. Forget whoever's in your head, your mom, your dad, your aunt, your uncle, your old college roommate, your rivals, your friends who are critical of you, whoever. Forget, forget. And that's part of the inner work, right? Forget FU, you know, the critical voices. And I'm going to do it anyway because it's my passion and I'm going to share it while I have the opportunity in this life, in this gym. I'm going to try to serve the waiver hole. And so forget the deserving of rest and play. Of course, work your self-care into your schedule, but do just enough self-care. Don't let self-care become yet another excuse, you know, that, oh, I'm so tired because the truth is, you deserve all of it. And the problem is if you think, if you use the eternal souls deserving of all the rest and play and put it into this limited earthly life, you make, you're mistaking that connection. You're going to rest and play all you want after this life. But in this life, you need to figure out what's enough. And then you need to stretch again. You need to get out your comfort zone. Just rest and play enough and then stretch again and then serve the waiver hole with your passion, with your authenticity. Okay. And then so I'll end by kind of sharing some of the structures that I'm using to really help me with my side project here. Human accountability is so important. Just because it's a side project, just because I'm doing it as a passion project doesn't mean that accountability isn't important. Because if I don't have accountability, I'm just going to, and part of this is accountability, once a month reporting to you. And I take a page from what I'm doing. Can you report once a month to your supportive friends and family, to your supportive audience, how your side project is going? I hope you do. That's what I'm doing. I have accountability for towards you. But I also need ongoing accountability every single week. So how am I doing that? I'm using a website called Focusmate. I love it. I use it for my main business all throughout the week. And now I'm also starting to use it for my side business. So focusmate.com, please go and try it out. It has changed my work style. It's human accountability for any work that I want to do. Focusmate.com. You may even see me there on certain Saturdays and you can work with me while I'm doing my side project. Okay. So focusmate. Super helpful. If you and I am actually starting a whole series of get it done sessions as well. If you need a combination of my coaching and focus work, but you have to pay for my sessions. My sessions are, you know, $60 a month. Focusmate is free right now. Get it while it's free. Focusmate.com. It's free. But if you want to pay for my sessions, that may help you to pay and then get show up. So that's up to you. If you want to do that. So, so that I'm doing that. And then another structure that works for me is I have to have a place to capture my ideas for the side project because, and I just got smart about this. I can't, you know, it's like, because I'm very productive in my main business. I have places to capture my ideas. I have structures, everything. But for my side project, I thought that I could just kind of wish you while she just do it. But no, no, I realize I need structure also for my side project. So now I created a category in my to-do list for my side project ideas. So when ideas come to me during the week, I can put it in that particular category in my to-do list so that when I work on it on Saturdays, I pull up that category to say, okay, what do I want to work on now? Okay. And the second category that I created in my to-do list is content ideas for my side project. It's important to have a place to capture my content ideas so that when I do, when I am blogging in my side project, I pull up that category and then I say, okay, what do I want to talk about this week? Okay. What do I want to write about this week? So a place to capture tasks and a place to capture content ideas is extremely important. Okay. And then another important structure is the way I create content, I made a mistake in the first couple of weeks of the side project thinking that I just have to, oh my God, I have two hours. I just have to write it and post it and buy Facebook ads on it all in the same sitting. And now I've gotten smart to say, no, no, okay. So here's my rhythm now. When I sit down for those two hours, I do a couple of things. I write, well, I plan what I'm going to be writing the following week. So I kind of start the plant the seed in my head for what I'm going to write the next Saturday. Secondly, I buy Facebook ads while I edit what I wrote the previous Saturday and then buy Facebook ads to certain audiences to get it out there. And happy to note that I've now, I've now over 100 fans on my side project. And these are real fans. I didn't buy any Facebook. I didn't promote my page to get likes. I didn't buy any Facebook fans. These are, I only buy ads for people to get blessed by the content on that page. And then they may choose to come to my page and manually click like I did not invite anybody either. So these are real fans. And so, so for, you know, that's the second thing I do is edit last week's posting and then buy Facebook ads to share it with new people. And the third thing I do is to write this week's posting that I thought about last week. So one, think about next week's, it's not in this order by the way, but not necessarily. But one is to think about next week's posting. What am I going to write about? Just start thinking about that. Maybe outline a few quick ideas. Two is to edit last week's posting that I wrote and buy Facebook ads. And three is to write this week's posting based on the ideas I had from last week. So now with the structure, I'm much clear what I do in those two hours. And it's like, okay, now I know, I don't have to question what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing now. And the final thing I'll say is to two more things. One is to test different types of topics early on so that I can build an audience who are interested in my various topics to not be afraid to come out as myself in these topics. Because it's my, you know, I'm building an authentic business. Why am I trying to be politically correct or whatever? No, I'm just going to be myself. I'm going to use my own voice. I'm going to say what is controversial or, you know, whatever I just want to say what I really want to say, what I really want to help people with. And then the ones who find me and like me are my true fans. So not to be politically correct. And then finally, to not expect that every piece of content is going to do well. Some are going to be duds and some will do well. And to not say, oh my God. There's no evidence that I'm not supposed to be doing this because these posts didn't do well. No. Expect that. And then expect that some of them will do well. And so therefore the test, a lot of different ways of saying things, a lot of different types of content to see what is the right match between my strengths and what the world wants from me. So I hope this is helpful as, you know, maybe you're building your side project. You're building your passion project. You're trying to create an authentic business and you're going to be able to do that. And so I hope that those monthly reports will be beneficial for you as well. So I want to thank those who are able to join me live. Mona and Stacy, Megan, Michelle, Viviane, Viviane, Gail, Timothy, Gudrun. Let's see here. Some of the comments. Yeah. Yeah, Stacy says, yes, get a structure. So, so important. Yeah, trust and just show up. Absolutely. Let's see here. Shelly, thanks for posting the link to the 10 year plan there in the comments below. And for those watching this on YouTube, I will be sure to put the 10 year plan in the comments below there. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Michelle says, I love focus mate. I get to work with Michelle sometimes don't focus me too. So that's great. Jill, thanks for joining me here. Gina, thank you. Okay. Yeah, Vivian emphasized the comment about being yourself will resonate with the ones who are like you. Thanks for being who you are. Absolutely. You know, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to be who you are. You're not making content for your mom. It's not for your critical, you know, aunt or uncle or whatever. Most uncles and aunts are really nice, but it's not for your critical mom. It's not for your critical friend that you had in the past. No. Your content is for the ones who are going to love you just as you are, you know, without the makeup. Some of you like putting on makeup, right? Do that. But if you don't like putting on makeup, don't put on makeup. Right. If you don't like it, if you don't, some of you actually enjoy it. If you enjoy it, do it. But if you don't enjoy it, if it's a pain to do it, don't do it. Don't put on makeup in your videos. Right. Yeah. Pretending for anybody. You're just doing it for your, for the ones who are going to love you as you are. And there are lots of people who do. They just don't know about you yet, which is why you need to buy Facebook ads to get it out there and test, test, test, test different audiences. Right. So anyway, hope this is helpful. And I encourage you to get out there and do your side project, do your authentic business, build it because you will then one day have income from the thing that you love to do. And I wish that for you. Blessings.