This past Sunday we had our A/I Activation Party.
I got to enjoy the first hour.
The second hour was split between trying to stay in flow with the group while keeping my 3 year old appeased with a quick game of “basement soccer”.
A former self would’ve been stressed that i was “split” and “fragmented”.
My current self, felt a bit more balanced and integrated.
And what lit me up most about that evening was seeing our A/I fam integrating the group party with their actual fam.
Kiddos bouncing about.
Infants being swaddled.
And one of our members, in all her 38 weeks glory, tempting the universe to make our dance party the scene of her birth story.
Part of me couldn’t help but think; this is how it oughta’ be.
So many of us (myself especially) have struggled with the “merger” of life and biz.
And I’ve only come to a recent acceptance that they don’t happen in “fixed” containers or silos with barbed-wire fences fiercely guarding the boundaries between them.
More than ever, our businesses are becoming integrated aspects of our lives, deeply in service of the ideals we wish to raise our kids around.
We’re diving deeper into sustainable living, homeschooling / unschooling, and yearning to be as involved as possible in our kids’ lives.
This is especially true for established and experienced online business owners who’ve created enough structure, growth and resources to even ATTEMPT this integration. And in many cases, build a life of “freedom” for this very purpose.
But it also brings up the question, of how do we, as program creators, make our courses, masterminds or coaching programs more accessible to the parent who’s “study session” can be interrupted at moment’s notice by a toddler meltdown.
Who doesn’t have an infinite amount of mulligans to implement an unclear lesson, because they may only have a sacred 90 hour work window before the stampede comes marching down the hall.
A few things come to mind…
Limit the fluff — get to the point sooner and don’t self-indulge in personal stories unless it’s truly helpful in integrating the lesson.
Make your programs more forgiving: In the sense that someone doesn’t need to consume ever video, and complete every worksheet over 12 weeks before kinda / maybe / sorta seeing a result. Find the quick wins, and…
Offer “fast-tracks” and “quick starts” that can yield the 80/20 of your program in short order, and make the rest of the program “bonus”.
Create feedback loops and q&s’s OUTSIDE of your allotted “group coaching calls”: And if you are going to answer it on the recorded coaching call, time-stamp it.
Listen and be open to feedback: It’s new terrain. We’re not gonna get it perfect. But let’s at least begin the convo.
In the launch we just wrapped up… “time” was the biggest concern.
It’s not an objection to overcome.
It’s not a “mindset issue” to fix.
It’s not a “matter of priorities” that we get to patronize our audience around.
It’s something that we, as creators who claim to be in-service of our audience, must continuously orient around, and uplevel the way we create training and implementation experiences.
Very far from perfect on my end.
But it’s a convo worth having (and continuing) as family and biz continue to integrate, and mental / emotional / energetic bandwidth continue to be resources we’re rightfully more discerning over.