How far out do you dream?

It’s important to think big and small

“In the trenches”

“Nose to the grindstone”

“I’ve got my blinders on”

“Zeroed in”

“One track mind”

There are seemingly endless sayings that we have about being focused and productive. And it seems like for many of us in entrepreneurship that’s almost a badge of honor (admittedly I bought hustle culture hook line and sinker…).

If you look at the inverse, people try to use the phrase “head in the clouds” as a sick burn.

By default, we tend to be better in one modality, and it’s often uncomfortable to switch to the other.

To clarify what I mean I’ll use one of my favorite analogy frameworks - the forest and the trees

Almost everything in life (problems, decisions, dreams) can be unique and require focus (a tree), while also playing into a bigger picture of how they interact with other unique things (the forest).

Tangibly this could look like:

  • An individual contributor at work vs a manager of contributors

  • A specific client project vs your workload for the quarter

Or the one I’ve been thinking about this week. What decisions you’re making to bring in income this month vs what all those decisions will help you build over the next five years?

Because the biggest forests are grown one tree at a time.

Jo and I started the week with this text exchange with Meg (@borntoroambookkeeping, past client, friend, & cool person), and it was such a big reminder for us how important it is to take a step back and ask the question what is everything we’re doing working towards.

Not gonna lie this is a “40,000-foot view” dream of mine that I’ve been pitching Jo for honestly a couple of years. I love the intimacy of workshops that happen in a home setting, because of the casual conversations that happen while eating or hanging out, possibly more than the actual scheduled stuff 😳.

But for a long time, there was the question “If our business is predominantly branding photography, how do we get from today to people paying for a 1:1 retreat/VIP coaching at our lake house?”

Short answer: one small shift at a time

Long answer: we frequently switch between trees and forest thinking to start aligning how our “small” decisions could start working towards creating the forest we want to have.

I know you’re probably tired of hearing about Your Big Shift (our new flagship coaching offer), but in some ways, this is also Our Big Shift … we’re putting our money where our mouths are. Starting next month for the first time in years we will be

  • Making more income from coaching than branding photography

  • We’ll be spending more time on coaching than branding photography

  • We’ll be presenting at an in-person retreat (not about photography)

  • We’re launching a FREE business book club

  • And you’ve already seen the pivot on our socials away from mostly posting about photography

  • Oh and we’ll be launching a non photography or marketing course called Irresistible Offers (I crossed 100 slides in the deck yesterday and Jo told me “This is our best course yet” 🤫)

Disclaimer: This feels like all sunshine and roses, there’s also the “hidden” parts of big changes no one talks about. September was one of the most stressful months I’ve had in a while, with less work than I would have liked, & I spent WAY TO MUCH time thinking / anxious about money.

None of these things individually help us buy a lake house in the woods, add my dream container home as an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) for clients to stay in (or Airbnb it), and start offering $10k VIP coaching retreat experiences. BUT they do get us closer.

At the end of the day, none of this would be possible if Jo and I didn’t take the time to detach from the daily/weekly focus and talk about what we want long term to look like.

What’s the big seemingly unattainable dream you can’t get out of your mind?

And how do you figure out how to zoom in from the forest view to a tree level that will help you move towards that big dream?

Because if I push the analogy (possibly too far), you’ll never get beautiful fall colors if you plant all evergreen trees that don’t change color. Make sure you’re planting the right trees to get the forest of your dreams.

Going into the last weekend before Q4, I double dog dare you to spend one whole uninterrupted hour with your beverage of choice, a hype playlist, and a notebook - go wild, no dream is too big. Next week you can figure out how to start working it into your offers.

-Lyndon

It’s not too late to join the book club! Our first call is on Tues Oct 1st, we’d love to have you!

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