Thanks to everyone who joined our April Monthly Community Coaching Call (MC3)! This month, the questions and conversation centered around the three goals of any business activity — cashflow, visibility, and opportunity.  This month we discussed: Learning to center yourself as the "talent" in your business  Building an audience and content strategy with a niche personal brand Prioritizing as a new solopreneur wearing many hats Leveraging opportunities unique to this moment and your experience  Improving as an editor in a new genre Exploring the pros and cons of the co ..read more

Chalk on a sidewalk that says, “YOU GOT THIS”. Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash During last week’s Quarterly Planning Session, before setting our goals and objectives for the quarter ahead, Charlie had us pause and time travel into the past. It seems counterintuitive to spend time looking back when you are primed and ready to move forward, but by doing so, you’re better able to see where you are now. Why?  Because it can be really hard to get to where you most want to go if you don’t know where you’re starting from. So after our round of victory laps where members shared their Q1 wins, C ..read more

Thanks to everyone who joined our Q2 Planning session! If you missed it or want to revisit it, Pro members can find a link to the recording below, along with session highlights, resources, and details about our upcoming Q2 calls. We all know quarterly planning is a good thing to do, but in the whirlwind of business, life, and all the random things that interrupt our days, we can forget that. These sessions are an opportunity to slow down and work through the steps of the wayfinding process, which asks these four questions:  Where am I? Where am I trying to go? How do I get there ..read more

Photo by Mark Paton on Unsplash For the last few months, I’ve been experiencing an irritating and persistent ringing in my right ear. It lasts for weeks at a time and, at times, increases to what I can only describe as high-pitched static, like that jarring sound that used to come out of radio speakers as you changed stations. (As I write this, I realize there is a whole generation that will have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about. Anyway…) When the tinnitus started earlier in the year, it was sometimes impossible to concentrate on anything else — but over time, I’ve learned to mostly ..read more

For those of you new to Productive Flourishing, here’s a primer on our Monthly Community Coaching Calls:  Once a month, Angela and I host a 60-minute community call that’s a mix of teaching, hot- support-seat coaching, and Q&A. The topics depend entirely on what you bring to us in a particular month, either live on the call or when you submit questions to us in the comments below. This is a great chance for you to have your burning questions answered or to get some focused support on a project or problem facing you in your work, business, or life. These monthly calls are part of a ..read more

Next week, we welcome April, and (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) we are starting to see the light of spring and feel a newness in the air.  For me, it always brings a renewed sense of energy — as if waking up from a long winter's nap — and I'm able to take in the world with fresh eyes and a sense of wonder and possibility.  Hustle culture might call this moment "crunch time," encouraging us to use this energy to push harder, faster, and longer to get things moving before the summer slows hit.  But here at PF, we don't believe much in "crunching." When it comes to moving ..read more

We all have parts of our day that we know we’re not using as well as we could. We can understand and be frustrated about this without going to the extremes of obsessive optimization thinking or trying to make every minute of the day the most productive, joyful, or flowful that it can be. While we could make how we use those not-the-best blocks of the day about our character, willpower, or grit, I think it’s simpler and healthier to call it as it truly is: we each have some bad or neutral habits that kick in during those blocks of the day. I said in 2015 in Are Your Habits Working For You, w ..read more

Thanks to everyone who joined our combined PF Monthly Community Coaching Call and Better Team Habits Office Hours last Wednesday. It was great to have our two communities come together, and it made for an excellent conversation! We talked about: How organizations should approach making political statements or distancing from problematic sources they previously referenced How to balance activities that fuel personal growth and development with family responsibilities The implications of AI on leadership and entrepreneurship  Determining where to direct your resources — investing in ..read more

Silhouette of a thumbs up. Jan Antonin on Unsplash. We’re smack in the middle of the month today — a good time for a mid-month review.  In addition to the six questions Charlie poses in that post, another good supplemental question you may want to consider: What’s good enough? Take that a step further, and it starts to connect to “What goals or projects [then] need to be adjusted or dropped?” But there’s a nuance about “good enough” that’s related to both level of success and level of “doneness” (what’s referred to in software circles as “definition of done.”). A few follow-up questions ..read more

"People are donating money to us! I don't want to be taking people's money!" Angela was looking up at me, confused about what was going on. Per usual, I had no idea what she was talking about. "What's going on? What do I need to fix?" I was grumpy because with everything else going on, the last thing I felt like dealing with was a social/public imbroglio. Angela had hip surgery last week and Christine, one of our many great neighbors, offered to set up a meal train for us. When Angela told me about it, I thought it was just a phrase like ‘call tree’, referencing a community practice. Little ..read more