Best Business Hacks

What To Do When The Old Stuff Just Isn’t Working

Do you ever find yourself doing the same things over and over in your business but they just aren’t working, or maybe they did once but they don’t seem to be working now?

This happens to me all the time. I think it’s just part of being in biz for yourself. 

I want to share a few things that have really helped me when the usual things don’t seem to be working, things that might help you when things are slow, things that might help to put some mojo back in your business, some excitement back into what you do, and maybe even give you some insight for the future of your business.

But first, I want to share a story that inspired me to write this … 

There’s A First For Everything

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to see a hand-written letter sitting in my mailbox addressed in English to “The Moore Family.” 

No return address. 

No postage. 

Here in Nice, like most people’s mailboxes in France, only residents of our building and mail carriers can access our mailbox so I was quite perplexed by this letter. I opened it and read in tight, neat handwriting a truly heart-felt invitation for our family to attend a religious meeting to celebrate what the author asserted was the precise day that Jesus was born. It was signed by a woman who also included her warm regards as well as her email address.

It would have been easy to be annoyed by this letter—the disregard for my privacy, no return address, the kinda creepy spy tactics used to case my family—and toss it in the recycle bin and carry on about my day. 

But something compelled me to write her back. 

Maybe it was the care in which the author had hand-written the letter, maybe it was her zeal for her cause, maybe it was my morbid curiosity of learning of how she knew who we were, where we lived, and that we were, an English-speaking family living in France. 

So, I emailed her back.

I sincerely thanked her for her care in writing us the letter and for inviting us to this event which clearly meant a great deal to her. I wrote that while I was very grateful for the invitation, I’d previously attended enough religious meetings in my life to have developed a sort of allergic reaction to them and that my personal religious views centered around simply loving people regardless of denomination. I said that while I would not be attending her meeting, I nonetheless appreciated her for caring enough to invite us and offered a heart-felt sentiment of love and wellbeing toward her and her family. 

She wrote me back. 

She was absolutely thrilled to receive my email and said something that FLOORED me. 

She said that in the 15 YEARS … (I pause for effect) that she’s been leaving these hand-written invitations in people’s mailboxes, I was the very … first … person … EVER to actually respond to one of them. 

I mean, you gotta admire this woman for her unwavering faith and tenacity. I hope that by leaving these meticulously hand-written letters in strangers’ mailboxes she’s somehow racking up some bigtime heaven points which she can cash in for some celestial rewards like the eternal jacuzzi in the great beyond … or maybe a word processor. 

But at what point do you realize that the way you’ve been doing things … just … isn’t … working.

Why Rinse And Repeat Is So Essential

What’s true is that I relate to this woman. I relate because I’m the king of getting into a rut, doing the same damn thing over and over, wondering why business slows down. 

This is why “Rinse And Repeat” is an essential pillar to my business model and mentor training I call The Mechanism of Influence. “Rinse And Repeat” is about regularly going back to the drawing board and reevaluating or refining your business’s direction so that you continue to be passionate about what you do, continue to meet the needs of your clients, and continue to be relevant in your field. It’s about avoiding a rut. 

Here’s a few ideas I use that might also help you keep your business fresh and alive. 

The first step in “Rinse and Repeat” is to go back to the drawing board and ask yourself: 

• Who am I—what are my interests, skills, and qualifications, both tangible and intangible? 

• Have my interests, skills, or qualifications changed since I started my business? 

• What sounds most interesting or fun to ME right now?

Next, return to your avatar, the theoretical model of your ideal client and ask:

• Who is my ideal client—get really granular in understanding them, everything from age to income, and especially their needs?

• Have their needs changed in the last year or 6 months?

• What are their most relevant and urgent needs at this moment?

Brainstorm ideas about how to meet what you perceive as the needs for your client. There are NO bad ideas. If you stumble upon an urgent need of your client that meets up perfectly with something you’re REALLY interested in, this is a big win. It’s likely that your excitement alone will stir up some amazing energy for a new project and that will carry you into awesome opportunities. 

Next, do you have a secondary market product you could offer, i.e., the next level product for graduates of the first product?

If the economy is booming, develop more high-ticket offers and bundle products.  

If the economy is slow, keep the same value to your products but cut them into smaller, more affordable chunks so that people can either buy smaller versions or purchase the full product over time. For example, instead of offering a 100-hr training, break it up into 5 modular 20-hr trainings. 

Another idea is to look at what others in your industry are doing and get curious how you might adopt, adapt, or innovate what’s already out there. Also, look at what’s being offered and determine that product that is glaringly absent but deeply needed by your avatar, no matter how niche. 

Stop guessing and simply ask your clients what they need.

Lastly, do your best to try to anticipate possible changes in the industry or economy 6 months or a year from now and make a plan to take advantage of those changes. 

At the end of the day, whether you’re a teacher, coach, or selling widgets, nobody has written the manual for your business. You’re writing it, day by day as you get curious about the events that occur. Everything that happens in your business is just information. Evaluate that information and take the next best step in a direction you hope is right. If it’s fruitful, keep going. If not, change course until you find the one that is. 

Please, for the love of god, if what you’re doing is not yielding results, don’t wait 15 years. Instead, “Rinse And Repeat.” 

Regardless of how well things are going for you in this moment, I invite you to get curious about your business and conduct a “Rinse And Repeat” cycle to keep your business fresh. 

Elsa And The Easter Bunny

I have ZERO hesitation to admit that I’m a grown-ass man who has seen Frozen II like 6 times and I cry every…single …time. 

Without fail. 

Have you SEEN this movie?! It’s a total life-changer. 

I get so moved by this movie because it touches on themes very close to my heart:

• Healing by making amends with the earth 

• Healing my making amends with indigenous people

• Healing by affirming the power of women, including the divine feminine

• Healing by discovering the divinity that exists within all of us, but maybe in an unrealized way, and that sometimes, the old version of us must die in order to transform us into the version we are destined to become

Whether it’s Osiris, Jesus, Elsa, or the Easter Bunny, truly, I love any myth, story, or religious tradition that celebrates resurrection. 

I believe that birth, life, death, and resurrection is truly the story of our ultimate personal and collective evolution.

I think we can all understand this in both basic as well as metaphysical ways. 

I don’t know if you get more than one go around on this planet but I can tell you this: I feel like I’ve lived several lives within THIS life. I mean, I feel like I’m a completely different person than I was even just 10 years ago?

Can you relate?

I teach a live, online Yoga Nidra class every Sunday at 9 am MDT (5 pm CET) and since tomorrow’s Easter, I can’t wait to explore the theme of resurrection as we practice living, dying, and being reborn through the unfailingly relaxing yet transformational practice of Yoga Nidra. 

If you can’t make it live, no worries because you can still register and get the replay. 

Please consider joining me with a drop-in, buying a class pass, or becoming a subscribing member. 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a poem that has been very transformational for me. I hope you love it as much as I do. Tell me what you think. 

---

The Layers

BY STANLEY KUNITZ

I have walked through many lives, some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat,

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

“Live in the layers,

not on the litter.”

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.

---

Dogs and Hogs

I’m not a Luddite, but come on. It’s kinda scary what AI can do, especially as it relates to writing text on the internet. It’s also kinda cool. 

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, let me explain. These days a writer can pop a question like, “How can yoga help to calm your nervous system?” into a text generator on the internet and have AI pop out a ready-made text that you can use for whatever you want, like writing an article, newsletter, or blog post. At the very least, it can help you create a base for your text after which you can go back and clean it up and make it sound a little less like a Speak and Spell and little more like a human wrote it. 

I mean, who needs to learn to write well if AI can do it for you, right? 

Have you heard of this or are you already using AI to help you write online? 

True, putting relevant information out there about your subject might be helpful, and if we are writing just to add to the seemingly limitless information about your subject, chances are that AI is already doing it faster and better.

But only using AI to write sidesteps an enormous opportunity. 

Our great opportunity with our writing is not just to share information with the world but rather to share ourselves with the world through our words. 

Plus, AI will never be able to tell YOUR story. 

AI doesn’t know your history. It can’t constellate the different events of your life and weave them together into a greater and more beautiful tapestry of meaning. It can’t mold this meaning into a heart-felt story that you can share with the world to make relatability, connections, and relationships.

Today, I wanted to share an example of connecting the dots of what could be meaningless facts and exploring questions around those facts in an effort to choose or invent a greater meaning to those facts. 

Public Service Announcement: YOU GET TO CHOOSE THE MEANING OF THE EVENTS IN YOUR LIFE. In part, this is how we are co-creating our reality. 

“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order, a timetable not necessarily—perhaps not possibly—chronological. The time as we know it subjectively is often the chronology that stories and novels follow: it is the continuous thread of revelation.”

— Eudora Welty

I wrote this story today and yesterday and I’ve purposely chosen to write a very personal story precisely because it is heart-felt and not something AI could do. My intention is both to show you my thought process of creating a story and also to demonstrate that through the writing process, I discover more about myself and make meaning to my personal history. I also hope to connect with you, heart to heart with something that maybe you can relate to as well. 

Speak and Spell, eat your heart out. 

Here’s the story …

---

Dogs and Hogs

My older sister, Charity, was easy to love. 

She loved many things but above all, she loved dogs and hogs. 

Charity owned a litany of Golden Retrievers, each one legendary. 

First there was Sadie, mild and docile, until she saw a cat then she was positively possessed. Plus, Sadie had bad doggie breath, god bless her.

Then there was Shadow, an unruly male with fire in his eyes. It was a full-body workout just to walk him around the block—a lot of shoulders, triceps, and core work. 

Then there was Chase, cool (and as round) as a cucumber, a total rockstar amongst the kids in my sister’s neighborhood who would come to her house and ask if they could play with her dog so they could dress him up in costumes, ride him like a pony, or lay on him like a pillow. As long as he was getting a pet and people were involved, he was into it. 

Finally, to break up the long dynasty of Golden Retrievers, Charity owned a little white Cantonese named Suri, a happy lap dog who weighed 10 lbs soaking wet. 

Forever, my sister’s dogs were her kids and my other siblings and parents all treated her dogs like our nieces, nephews, and granddogs. 

Charity also loved Harleys. 

She loved the spirit of freedom and ruggedness of Harleys. A rebel at heart, Charity loved how Harleys slightly leaned toward lawlessness. The spirit she appreciated in Harleys, Charity also appreciated in men. The nickname for Harleys is hogs, an adjective also attributable to many of the men she dated. 

This lawlessness of motorcyclists isn’t unique to Americans. Oh, no. Now, this is completely my opinion, here, but one thing that I’ve noticed living in France, and my French friends largely agree with me on this, is that the attitudes of French motorists in general, but specifically motorcyclists, whether driving a Harley Road King or a Honda Trail 90, also exhibit a level of blatant lawlessness. Clearly the legacy of French car races like the Grand Prix is in their blood causing everyone on the road to emulate a Road Warrior persona, driving too fast and too aggressive, pedestrians be damned. If it means that I sound like a curmudgeon just because I get annoyed by dodging cars and motorcycles that are driving on the sidewalk or have to sprint with my family through a crosswalk (mon Dieu) just because Road Warrior can’t be bothered to slow down to less than Autobahn speeds, than so be it. 

I know, I know, I don’t need to have an opinion about it …. 

Somehow, I feel that Charity would more than likely snigger at and condone this moto-mayhem. 

Charity always did everything her way and no way was Charity going to ride on the back of someone else’s motorcycle. Being a fiercely independent woman, a self-learner, and because many of the men she dated were often even less reliable than their bikes, she bought and learned to ride her own Harley-Davidson—a silver Deluxe Softail with Screamin’ Eagle pipes and whitewall tires. 

She adored that motorcycle. 

Every year she would load up her hog on a trailer, attach it to an RV, and haul it from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sturgis, South Dakota to attend one of the biggest motorcycle rallies in the world. 

But one year while at Sturgis, her love for motorcycles died after witnessing a horrifying accident that killed another woman rider. Seeing this accident shook her hard and she resolved to park her bike on the trailer and sell it as soon as she got back to Salt Lake. 

For a year or two, her Harley sat in the garage gathering dust under her Cowboys on Motorcycles calendar.

Then one day, one of her less-than-reliable ex-boyfriends rolled by to say hi. He suggested they dust off her hog and go for a short spin. On this occasion she uncharacteristically rode on the back and uncharacteristically rode without a helmet. 

Not speeding, but taking a turn too sharply, a foot peg caught the pavement and flipped the bike, throwing her headlong into a large boulder on the side of the road, killing her almost instantly. Her ex-boyfriend sustained injuries but survived. 

Charity’s sudden and violent death was a massive shock to our family as well as her enormous wake of friends. We just weren’t prepared to lose her. 

Over many weeks and months, we gathered as a family and wrapped up her affairs including finding a home for her surviving dogs, Chase and Suri, who were generously adopted by some of Charity’s best friends.

I love Charity immensely but unexplainably, I felt numb about her death for about 18 months or so. I felt guilty about not feeling more than a little grief. I think that I just couldn’t wrap my mind and heart around it. 

But eventually, in my own time, I opened up and was able to properly grieve her death, which no doubt was the result of the healing work I’ve done with my personal meditation and Yoga Nidra practice. Oh, and a great therapist. That and I can’t forget the help of a shaman and a healthy dose of ayahuasca in the jungles of South America. 

It took a while but through all of this I came to realize that my relationship with Charity didn’t end. My friend, Tiffany Burns, is a fellow Yoga Nidra teacher, a River Writing facilitator, and the founder of Continuing Connections. It’s a business that uses Yoga Nidra and writing to help people who have lost loved ones to maintain and even improve their relationships with their past loved ones. In exploring how to use Yoga Nidra to deepen her work with her clients, she opened my eyes to understand that you’re not meant to “get over” someone who has passed. Rather, you get to create continuing connections with them in an ongoing dialogue of symbols, memories, and meaning making. 

I suppose that is what this story is all about. 

I loved Charity’s dogs but I didn’t feel like I was the dog-owning type. I mean, growing up, our family had a few dogs but the first one ran away and the second was hit by a car in front of our house. Both of these instances broke my heart and frankly traumatized me. So, not wishing to relive that all over again, I was quite content having doggie nephews and nieces and leaving the actual owning of the dog to others. 

Plus, there’s a metric shit-ton of dog doo to pick up. No thanks.  

My attitude changed after many months of convincing by Sen and Ellie. So, in December of 2022, our family adopted a beautiful and loving Australian Cobberdog. We named him Cosmo because the name came to Sen in a dream and if your wife gets a revelation that you’re supposed to name your dog Cosmo, you name your dog Cosmo.

Cosmo at 4 months, his adoption day.

Cosmo at 7 months.

We fell instantly in love with Cosmo and in the 4 months that we’ve owned him, we’ve had so many bonding experiences, whether it’s sitting with us at cafes, snuggling on the couch reading Elio bedtime stories, or spending time training him. One of Cosmo’s favorite things to do is to wake Elio up in the morning by going into his room and licking his face. As he is doing it, Cosmo’s so happy, his tail wagging so much, that you’d think it might fall off. He's undeniably a messenger of joy and happiness, so much so that I don’t even mind picking up the dog doo. 

Now here’s the scary part …

About two months ago, when Cosmo was only 5 months old and totally puppy-brained, we were on a walk with him en route to one of our favorite cafes here in Nice when, walking on the sidewalk next to a busy intersection, we encountered another dog on a walk with his owner. The dogs greeted each other like long-lost friends (brothers from another mother) and instantly began playing, hopping around, and pawing at each other. Immediately, the leashes of the two dogs became impossibly tangled. 

I was holding Cosmo’s leash but when the dogs started to tangle their leashes, Seneca who was opposite of me in the foray of ecstatic dogs, reached for the leash to help untangle them. In poor judgment, I let go of the leash thinking that she had it but she didn’t. Suddenly, without anyone holding his leash, Cosmo’s leash slipped from the knot. Feeling his leash untethered, Cosmo burst away from the cluster, drunk with freedom, several feet from where I could grab it. 

In his euphoria, he bolted blindly and at a dead sprint toward the busy street with oncoming traffic. We were horrified to see that a huge delivery truck was tearing down the street, fast and furious. Lawless. It was clear that Cosmo was in a trajectory to be hit by this huge truck. 

In the space of only one or two seconds, this nightmare was unfolding before our eyes and there was no way to grab his leash in time—we were completely helpless.

The oncoming delivery truck couldn’t see Cosmo because he was driving too damn fast and because his vision was blocked by a motorcycle that was parked (lawlessly) on the sidewalk perpendicular to the street, totally blocking any view of pedestrian traffic. I mean, who parks like that? Oh, yeah. The French do. 

But thank you, Angel of Lawlessness, because in a fraction of a second and by pure cosmic intervention, our dog’s untethered and flapping leash somehow wedged itself under the rear tire of the illegally parked motorcycle and within only a few inches before Cosmo met Road Warrior’s front wheels, the leash caught, yanking Cosmo to a dead stop, landing him flat on his back, dazed and confused. Road Warrior whizzed by down the street, completely unaware that he’d come within inches of plowing into our sweet dog.

It was an unmitigated miracle. 

My hands shook as I removed Cosmo’s leash from under the tire of the parked motorcycle and picked up my trembling dog from off the ground. I held him tightly against my chest and could feel our two hearts pounding from fear. 

Elio and Sen gathered around and we all loved on him and pet him reassuringly as we passed wide-eyed glances to each other sharing our wordless gratitude for our dog who was just miraculously saved from an untimely doggie demise. 

In the days following this event, Elio and I chatted during our walks to school, processing and making sense of the events of that terrifying moment. We decided together that clearly Cosmo must have a guardian angel. We decided that if it’s heaven’s law that you’re not supposed to meddle in the lives of the living, there must have been a rebellious angel up there who took things into her own hands to save our sweet dog. We decided that this angel could be none other than Charity because what other rebellious angel loves both dogs and hogs?

One motorcycle took a life and another motorcycle saved a life.

Thank you, sweet Charity. 

---

What a great writing practice! Writing this has helped me profoundly to add depth and narrative to both my sister’s death and the near death of my dog. Again, the “history” is made in the interpretation of the events. That’s what’s true and real, or at least what really matters. 

Ok, so in Saturday’s workshop, I’ll show you how I fleshed out some pretty straight forward and neutral facts, then made some long-chain connections, and wove it all together to make a story with heart and meaning so that you can do this with your own stories. 

This online writing workshop is perfect for all levels of writers. It’s going to be empowering and fun as we explore the power and play of writing in a way that AI can’t. I’m going to give you templates for writing for your website, including your About Me page, impact statement, opt-in (valuable free offer) and how to write to establish yourself as an expert in your field. I’ll also give you tools to help you write simple, clear, and cogent blog posts and newsletters that speak directly to your clients’ needs. 

You can join live and/or watch the replay. I’ve also priced this to be very affordable so you have no excuse to put your ideas and stories out into the world. 

Remember that more than just adding information to the internet, your opportunity through writing is to share your story with the world. Learning to connect these dots between your life’s events and your ideas will add beautiful meaning to your life and connect your heart with your clients, students, and the world. 

Starting Over

One thing I teach in my online Yoga Nidra training is the value of starting over. Tell me if you relate to this story.

I attended college back in the era of “floppy disks” and one day I got a hard lesson on just how "floppy" these disks were.

One evening, after a grueling day of wrestling with an essay I'd been writing for weeks, what was to be my pièce de la résistance, my magnum opus, and intended to be both my senior thesis AND my entry into a prestigious essay contest, I sat down at my desk to print off my essay so I could submit it the following day and as I clicked the floppy disk into my computer and looked at the contents to find the file to print … nothing. Nada. Rien.

Floppy. 

 Everything on that disk had been mysteriously obliterated.

So, what did I do? What could I do?

Sitting there at my desk, I simply started over. 

The words were fresh; I’d practically memorized the thing. 

But this time instead of wrestling with the words and ideas, they tumbled out of my brain and danced through my fingers onto the keyboard fast and fluid. This time it formed more clearly with ideas I hadn’t even thought of the first time. This time, it had soul. 

I finished the essay (again).

I graduated with my degree.

I took 1st place in the essay contest. 

Starting over can be a gift. 

Regardless of how many times you have to come back to your presence in meditation, it doesn't matter, starting over is a gift.

Even if you've let your meditation or yoga practice go, it doesn't matter, starting over is a gift. 

No matter whatever we've lost, tried, and failed at, no matter what didn’t take the first time (or several times), starting over is a gift. 

May we all celebrate the opportunity to come back to presence and start over again and again and again. 

This time could make all the difference.

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Online Yoga Nidra Training

I’m absolutely passionate about Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra has taught me more about myself, the Universe, and my purpose in the world than any other practice and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with you.

If you’ve ever thought about teaching Yoga Nidra, now is the time—the world needs it more than ever. Also, the world needs more qualified Yoga Nidra teachers, and this course is designed to teach you to become a Yoga Nidra expert, delivering this healing practice in the power of your own voice— because there’s no one who can teach like you can.

One of the things I’ve learned about Yoga Nidra is that even though practicing it is very easy and can lead to profound transformation, being an effective Yoga Nidra facilitator can be very difficult. This is why I’ve created Facilitating Transformation with the Yoga of Sleep, an enlightening, engaging, and enjoyable online Yoga Nidra teacher training where you will learn the art and science of teaching Yoga Nidra using the power of your own voice. You’ll also learn how to apply your expertise to acquire and create excellent teaching opportunities through live or online group classes, workshops, courses, private sessions, and even how to lead yoga retreats and other paid events. I’ll even teach you how to create digital products to sell and share your teaching gifts with the world. In short, you’ll learn how to make a massive impact while making a great living doing what you love.

Guides From Beyond

It’s almost the 2-year anniversary of my mom’s death. About 10 days after she passed, she came back to me in a dream.

She looked radiant, so happy and vibrant and only wanted to say one thing:

“I’m just so grateful!”
“I’m just so grateful!”
“I’m just so grateful!”

Then she burst into flames.

Totally serious.

It was her moment of transformation into the great beyond and this vision seared the message of her gratitude deeply into my heart and mind.

What do you think you’d say if you could come back from the dead and say one thing?

Gratitude is one of the most important things we can cultivate in our life.

Instead of waiting for things to happen in our lives to be grateful for, we must make a point of choosing to find things to be grateful for no matter our circumstances. Practicing gratitude in this way will soon help see that your life is non-stop blessings.

Maybe this is what my mom was saying.

Thanksgiving is this week in the US and regardless of where you are in the world, I invite you to practice gratitude with me this (Saturday Nov. 26th 9–11 am MT; 5–7 pm CET) at my special Gratitude Workshop where we will practice some all-levels poses, expansive breathwork, journaling, and of course Yoga Nidra.

Join live via Zoom and/or catch the replay.

You’ll float away from this practice feeling alive in your body, calm in your mind, and your heart brimming with the truth that your life is an incredible gift.

I hope you'll join me on Saturday.

In the meantime, here’s a poem to brighten your day and which hits home with the message of gratitude, despite whatever visits us in life.


The Guest House
By Rumi Translated by Coleman Barks

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
​
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
​
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
​
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
​
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.