I put my reputation and personal security for my family on the line three times in the last two years.

Three risky experiments based on my conviction.

Most people don’t know this, but the last one happened just a few months ago.

Let’s break the whole timeline down so we’re speaking the same language, because I’m going to reveal something that’s shocked the hell out of me.

First experiment: Leave a great salary it took me 12 years to earn.

I’d started a marketing agency with a couple of other guys. Bootstrapped it from $0 to multi-seven figures when I exited.

All because I started asking myself the question: “Can you reach your full potential here?”

Left with no plan, a “how-long-can-I-last-if-I-make-no-money” timeline, and a loud AF intuition I was made for more.

Took four months in the wilderness. Made money. Was on pace to replace that “took-me-12-years-to-achieve” salary by July 2025, and shut it down.

This was experiment two.

Not just in the mental wilderness, but the physical one. Walking out of a cabin with no cell service or WiFi with a hunch.

Instead of a deliverable heavy mini-agency I’d just created, people were asking me to create a community.

Most people you see online are creating communities because it’s a smart business with high profits.

I started mine with maximum reservations, a bit of imposter syndrome, but a belief that if that many people are saying I’d do well and can be helpful, I’m more committed to being a servant than to being fearful.

It went well! Over 20 people passed through the doors. I called it Autonomy Club.

We even had an in-person retreat and went off without a hitch. Bangin’ people. Bangin’ time.

And then…I got sick the last three weeks of 2025.

One of those where you’re body is functioning but the lights aren’t on upstairs.

So, having learned to match the work to the energy, I stopped trying to run the business and started to reflect on the business.

And this is where experiment number three started.

But there’s something crucial to know here.

None of these experiments were rooted in “I need this to work” energy.

I didn’t swap the first experiment for the second because I thought it would perform better.

All of it was working already. I’ve just had enough life experience to understand that just because I’m capable at doing it well, doesn’t mean I’m destined to see it through.

Paying the bills, if I’m honest, has never been enough for me.

And, that’s where the third experiment started.

Because during the end of year reflection, I asked myself a lot of questions.

The question that revealed the most to me went something like this:

What are you merely good at versus what are you good at AND lights you up?

I was confident in the answer, but I started asking my community members.

They confirmed the answer.

I’m excellent at very few things…but these are it:

• Being curious
• Asking questions
• Deep listening
• Objectivity

I knew it. My clients knew it.

Then, it came to a very simple question to follow this data:

What’s the modality where all of this shines?

Simple.

1-on-1 conversation.

And when I asked my clients in the community where they got the most value from me, they didn’t say…

• Lessons
• Modules
• Group sessions
• Even anytime async access

All of them said, a version of the same thing:

When we’re in a room, 1-on-1, you ask me questions that make the decision clear.

And that’s a VERY important distinction.

Because they were telling me that I didn’t give them the answer. I asked, reframed, and challenged to where they could see the answer on their own.

Or, because human life isn’t always so tidy as “I have a problem, here’s a guaranteed answer”…

It would at least reveal a decision they could make that was honest to them, rather than imaginary or in service to other people’s expectations.

With this data, a few days later, I was driving my son to school, and all of a sudden, waiting at a stoplight, a person’s face flashed across my mind.

You need to speak to this person.

Which was weird because I’d never grabbed coffee with this person. I’d never spent 1-on-1 time with them at all. They’d attended a couple of lectures I’d given over the previous six months.

So, drop my son off, and before I put the car back in drive, I found them on Instagram and sent this:

We meet March 2, 2026, and I open it with this…

“So, I was at a red light, thinking about something, and your face immediately crossed my mind, and I don’t know why. And I’ve learned that when my gut speaks, I better listen. So, I feel like I’m being guided by something else rather than having an agenda here. Can I tell you my thoughts on a few things? You’ll be the first to hear it.”

I told her that I see something in her. The closest you could relate it to would be the “it” factor.

I was honest, “I have no offer around this. I don’t know what it would look like. But on the surface, I genuinely think that every person destined for greatness has the answer locked behind a door in their head. They just can’t see it because the door’s under two inches of dirt.”

Which sounds foreign to most people. Because the market is saying the opposite.

They’re saying, “No no no. You don’t have the RIGHT door. Here’s mine!” And so we buy the coaching, the course, the framework, trying to fit our lives to external parameters.

I told her, I’ve got nothing wrong with these solutions, I have everything wrong with thinking they’re the first step.

Like buying groceries. Before you go, you look in your own fridge to see what you need. You don’t buy an entire aisle first and solve your hunger that way.

A few weeks go by.

The experiment, like a tree, starts spreading a root here and a root there.

One being, “Give it—whatever it is—to three people for free.” Not as a tactic. My gut just told me three was the number.

And, through random coffee and serendipity, two people were down to beta test with me on what I was calling my “fit-it-on-a-notecard” offer. 🤭

And, 43 days after sending that Instagram message, I circled back around and told the first person the truth.

My gut always told me three people. Two have opted in. I’d love for you to be the third.

She joined.

And, equipped with three people I was completely lit up to serve, with a notecard offer, and a conviction that capable people need space to look inward before they open their wallets to look outward…the experiment began in earnest.

What was most uncomfortable for me going in was the recognition that I’m not solving business problems anymore. What I do could no longer be put on a tidy spreadsheet or chart you could monitor month over month.

It would come down to a feeling. An intangible. More along the lines of “I live more” not just “I have more.”

My expectation was that the transformations would be slow, untidy, probably painful sometimes.

I never promised fun, or ease, or some perfect plan. To change your life takes an internal commitment that requires more than putting in your credit card number and blocking it off in your calendar.

But when the relationship is right, the conditions are right, and there’s complete trust on both sides…

It moves faster than you think.

I’ve been working with this person for three months… and after every session, I pop the transcript into what I call an After-Action Report (AAR). Which is designed for continuity and to rip me a new one when I could do better.

Each time, it gives me a progress summary of where my client started to where they are now.

Here’s the latest one for this person:

When I read it, I’ll admit, Reader, I felt fully validated in taking all the risks I’ve taken over the years.

I’ve said no to a lot of money.

I’ve burned out to learn lessons.

I’ve tried every complex door the market can throw at you (and likely is throwing at you right now in every ad and post and DM).

All below the surface, believing that it’s not knowledge that holds people back. Or laziness. Or capability. Or resources.

It’s self-trust.

Capable people are walking all among us but there are simply not enough people who look in the mirror and say, “You’re the best person for this. You’ve got it in you.”

And so, this client, who used to put everyone in front of her, realized that was a complex way to ignore the fact that she needed more self-trust.

That being endlessly busy, serving people ‘til 8, 9, or 11 PM at the expense of time with her fiancé, or saying yes to so many things in life that looked good but didn’t feel right…

To go from that mentality to saying on our last call, “Two months ago, I wasn’t having this much fun.”

It shows the power of self-trust.

The power of sweeping away dirt to reveal the next honest decision.

The power of space.

The power of prioritizing meaning above capability.

I’ve told my three clients it’s shocking to me how quickly they’ve transformed.

And at the same time, when you really look at it…they’re capable as hell.

Why wouldn’t they be doing and feeling better than ever if they simply reshuffled the deck so that what they care about is on top and what they used to tolerate is discarded?

In that way, it’s not shocking at all.

So, I’ve gone from being curious if this experiment would change lives…

To knowing it.

I’ve gone from needing to market and sell well to selecting the right people who hold an internal commitment toward hitting their potential…by helping others.

And so, I ask you—and I wish I would have asked myself this way earlier—why does it need to be more complex than this?

Why does the spreadsheet come first?

Why does the podcast, the book, the event, the mastermind come first?

Why is the thing you carry around with you every day—your intuition—taking instructions from external forces?

Why don’t we trust ourselves?

And that’s what I do.

I ask questions.

And when I’m asking them in a room, 1-on-1 with an internally committed person, I can now confirm that it only takes three months to be living a completely different life.

An aligned life.

An exciting life.

A challenging-on-your-terms life, not just a hard-as-hell life.

Embodied by my clients who no longer ask, “What should I do that’ll work?”

Now they say, “Whatever it is, I trust myself to handle it.”

And, Reader, everything can be handled under this umbrella.

Your business. Your relationships. Your ambition. Your time. Your energy.

Improve your self-trust, improve the rest.

So, I’m in no rush. Have zero marketing and sales. And don’t desire to use any urgency or scarcity tactics on you.

Frankly, I don’t care if someone works with me or not…so long as they trust themselves more…it doesn’t matter whether I served them or something else did.

I’m more and more convinced the world is suffering from a self-trust epidemic. All I care is that we attack it with everything we’ve got.

So genuinely, if you can find it in something cheaper, easier, or more aligned…do it. Without hesitation. Do it!

But if you’ve been sitting there thinking…”When I get more time (or money, or another client, or insert whatever), it gets better.”

That’s just another thing distracting you from the underlying issue.

Because if you get it without trusting yourself, you’ll just recycle that feeling over and over until you die.

Too busy? Trust.

Difficult days? Trust.

A roster of clients you’re not lit up by? Trust.

And with this knowledge, the scariest thing is that you can go on living your whole life without truly knowing yourself.

So, solve it. Improve it. At least make space to discover it.

Whatever you do, find trust in yourself.

Working with me…and this is no guarantee…it seems that an internally committed person sees the power of it in weeks to months. Not years and decades.

So, if you’re internally committed. Let’s grab coffee, and we can feel out if what I do makes sense.

If not, I’ll do my best to recommend something else.

If so, we’ll see if committing to The Room with me makes sense. I don’t promise ease, affordability, or pretty much any other big, outrageous promise you see in other people’s marketing.

Because it’s not my life we’re transforming. It’s yours. And that takes some work.

But is there any worthier work in the world than discovering your true self and hitting your potential doing what only you can do?

​Coffee’s on me.​

I provide vibes and questions.

The rest’ll take care of itself.

Til next time,

C