The Holistic Journey - July 8, 2023

P.S.A. - If you got this email a few hours ago, I apologize. That was a rough draft and not fully finished. That's my mistake. This is the complete version of the email - Thanks!

Ever since I started my self-improvement journey…

I was always scared to put myself out there.

I felt like I couldn’t contribute any value to the world at that point…

That feeling of imposter syndrome hit me hard, especially when I heard about the business side of self-improvement.

The thoughts in my head were rampant:

• “No one wants to listen to a 16 year old!”
• “Oh I don’t have enough experience”
• “Oh but-but I don’t want my friends to see me”
• “What if my parents find my page?!”

I had all these self-imposed limiting beliefs, and they weren’t helping at all.

Not one bit.

So how exactly did I overcome these beliefs - to the point where I now feel comfortable (and confident) to post value on social media several times a day?

Well let’s find out.

The Battle In Your Mind

Chances are, you’re just like me.

You’ve been on self-improvement for a while now…

And want something more.

You want more fulfillment - a purpose that you can carry out day by day.

The thing is, you already know the solution to this.

Social Media.

But you’re scared, just like I was. And I understand.

It seems daunting at first, especially if you’re more of an introvert.

Or, you may feel like you have nothing to share with the world, and guess what?

That’s bullshit.

If you’ve been on self-improvement for even 1 DAY, not 10 years, not 5 years, not even 1 year - then you have something worth sharing, something that could possibly change somebody’s life.

Yet your limiting beliefs that are SELF-IMPOSED are stopping you from doing so.

You’re on a journey that’s so vast and beautiful - yet your beliefs stop you from sharing the golden nuggets that you’ve learned along the way.

The internet - social media in particular has opened up so many opportunities for us.

Back then if we were feeling lonely and had no friends to relate with, we would’ve just had to deal with it.

But now?

We have access to the 4.26 billion people that have social media.

Isn’t that crazy?

You could find (with given effort) like-minded people to improve with, to make friends with, to share your journey with.

That’s called networking technically - but I prefer the term “connecting” or “making friends.”

For months, I will not lie to you: I felt very lonely on my self-improvement journey.

But now?

I’ve started growing a following on social media and over the past few weeks, I’ve connected with some amazing people - people that understand the journey of improvement.

These are the people who you want to grow with my friend.

These are the people who you want in your inner circle.

But first…

Let’s CRUSH your limiting beliefs.

From my own experience, there are 3 kinds of limiting beliefs that keep people trapped in their shell.

I’ll break them down for you and get you on the road to success.

Limiting Belief 1.

“Oh but I don’t have enough experience.”

Yes you do.

You think you can’t teach anything to anyone?

You think you haven’t overcome adversity at one point in your life?

The best teacher is not the one that’s 10 steps ahead, but the one that’s 1 step ahead.

And you’re that teacher that’s one step ahead.

You’re the one that’s most relatable to the common person.

Limiting Belief 2.

“Oh but-but I don’t want my friends to see me”

Chances are… you’re friends aren’t the best people to be around.

If you’re thinking that train of thought, then they’re probably not trying to better themselves right?

So throw their opinions, their criticisms, their hatred aside.

Remember, they can only bring you down if they’re below you.

That’s that.

Limiting Belief 3.

“But-but what if my parents see me posting online?”

So what if they see you?

Again - why should you care?

Do you think that they’re going to be ashamed in you?

Why?

What if you make them proud with this instead - WHAT IF you succeed?

Ditch your negative mindset and stop thinking of the worst-case scenarios.

Trust me, I have immigrant parents, and you know how they could be. Yet, I’m going to feel no shame towards it and looking forward to the day that they find out what I’m doing online.

Stop worrying about the problems so far in the future, when you haven’t even started sharing your journey yet.

Alex Hormozi says it best:

5-Step Framework To Start Sharing Your Journey

Now it’s time to talk about how you can start sharing your journey.

If I were you and starting all the way from the beginning…

I would follow the R.I.P.E.N. method.

R). Recognize

Before you start posting at all, take this time to recognize which social media platform you use the most.

1. You’re already familiar with the platform that you’re going to use to start posting online.
2. You’re going to attract the audience that you desire the most.

For example, I found myself using Instagram a lot - so what did I do? I started a self-improvement page on Instagram!

The only caveat to this is Youtube.

Unless you have a lot of money to invest, then it’s a good idea to save that platform for later once you’ve built yourself up.

Youtube is tricky, I “failed” that platform, but I plan to come back once I’ve reached a much larger following.

I). Ideate

Once you’ve selected the platform that you’ve decided to post on, it’s time to start the ideation process.

This is when you come up with ideas for videos, or tweets/threads if you’re choosing to go with those platforms.

If you have ideas straight away for the type of content that you’re going to make, that’s great!

If not, I would take the time to sit down and journal.

Journaling - or should I say writing is the foundation of ideation.

If you have no idea where to start with the journaling process, feel free to grab my journaling guide right here.​

It’s going to help you out a lot at the Ideate stage of this framework.

P). Post

Good job!

You’ve come up with your first idea!

Wait what… you think that it’s not that good? Don’t care.

Everyone’s first piece of content is going to be shit - and that’s okay.

That’s just a part of the creator lifestyle. Your first iteration of anything isn’t going to be a masterclass.

Accept that the first thing you post on any platform is going to be utter shit.

After all, we have to force the shitty water to flow through the tap before we ever have the hope of getting clean water.

Just make sure as you gradually progress through your journey, both as a creator and improver - that your content scales with it.

E). Extract

After posting your first 5-10 pieces of content, it’s time to look at the analytics and extract the information.

There are no failures when it comes to content creation, just data.

Data that lets you know what videos performed well, or performed terribly.

You need to use this data of which videos did well, and create more content surrounding that topic.

Reiterate and repurpose the content that’s done well because that’s already a tried-and-tested metric proven for success.

Maybe it’s going to take you 20 pieces of content just for something to go viral.

That’s fine. In fact - that’s almost ideal.

It teaches you the process of ideation and if you had your first piece of content go viral off the rip, then you’re not going to have a clear idea on what exactly to post next.

N). Network

My favorite part about all of this.

It’s the process of “making friends” and forging life-long connections online.

The entire thing may seem daunting to you at first, and I get it.

I used to be so scared just to DM someone that I wanted to connect with.

But here’s exactly what I would do if I just started networking…

All in just 3 steps:

1. Pick a person with a relatively small following you resonate with
2. Go through their content and figure out which one you liked a lot
3. Slide into their DMs with a compliment based on their content

Ta-da!

That’s it. You don’t have to make this process so complicated.

All you do is give them value, most commonly in the form of a compliment - but it could be something else, like resources that you think would help them out.

Networking isn’t so hard when you realize that all these other people are just like you and I; human.

And every human - no matter how stone cold, loves a good compliment about themselves.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t go into the conversation expecting something grand in return.

And NEVER, I mean NEVER start a conversation with:

• “Hi!’
• “Hey!”
• “How are you?”
• “Yo man how ya doin?”
• “Can you follow me back bro?!”
• A long block of text that’s hard to read A straight sales pitch with no context or prior engagement

Now…

If you’re not confident at first, start with an anonymous account, and rebrand to a personal brand later on.

Just like I did.

It’s worked well for me and I know that it’s going to work well for you.

Just trust the process.

Time to get into the fun stuff!

Skill Acquisition

Once you start sharing your self-improvement online, you’re going to learn so many skills.

Just to name a few:

• Sales
• Writing
• Teaching
• Marketing
• Persuasion
• Psychology

These are the skills that every human needs to succeed online.

And it’s okay to not have them mastered at first.

But the most important part?

They’re monetizable skills.

Meaning - you can make money when you have experience in these skills.

Isn’t that amazing?

This can LITERALLY BE YOUR CAREER.

Need social proof?

There’s already people that are doing this out here:

• Dan Koe
• Justin C. Scott
• Hamza
• Joey Justice
• Zach Pogrob
• Ali Abdaal
• Me :) (jk give me 2 weeks)

These are all people who have monetized their passion(s) of self-improvement and others using social media.

The best part?

There is unlimited digital real estate.

The internet is infinite, and everyone who acts can grab a piece of the pie.

This all may seem overwhelming to you…

I understand, it’s a lot to take in and implement yourself.

But - if you want to fasttrack your journey, both your personal development and professional development…

I highly recommend you to invest in your education.

Now I’m not talking about some sleazy $40,000 4-year degree, though those CAN be useful given the right circumstance.

I’m talking about investing your money through:

• Books
• Course
• Cohorts
• Coaches
• Mentorships
• Masterminds
• Networking Groups

We live in an age where we could learn directly from our idols.

And it's time to take advantage of that.

Anyways, in the next few weeks I’ll be opening up 1:1 personalized self-improvement coaching.

I’ll help you:

• Develop systems & routines
• Start your social media journey
• Monetize your passion through social media & high-impact writing

It’s going to be a paid coaching service, but I promise you that I’ll return the favor 10-fold and you’ll learn everything that I know about self-improvement and social media.

So keep your eyes out over the next few weeks my friend.

That’s it.

If you’ve made it to the end, I really appreciate you.

Feel free to download my free guides below to help you on your journey.

Journaling Guide

Mental Mastery Guide

Talk to you soon :)

– Ethan