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Mon, Jan 31, 2022 06:34 PM
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What's up {NAME}!? As I write this week's newsletter, I just woke up and am snuggled up in
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   What's up {NAME}!? As I write this week's newsletter, I just woke up and am snuggled up in my hotel room bed in Los Cabos 🏖 Truth be told, I struggled to figure out what to write for this week's newsletter. So much so that at around 12AM last night I said "Screw it! I'm going to take a nap and set an alarm for 2AM and write something after I rest a little." Well, my friend... 2AM my alarm rang. Then I snoozed it to 3AM. Snoozed it to 5AM. Snoozed it to 7AM... And now it's 9AM. Has this ever happened to you? 😂 Pictured below: Me writing this email after snoozing 6x last night: That said, this experience was the inspiration I needed to figure out the topic of this week's email. LEGGO! #1: You set your own deadlines. You are the boss. Let's make it clear: I'm a total night owl and I'm NOT a morning person. However, the on-and-off snooze situation I described above is something that I've gone through many times and seem to never learn my lesson. Think about it: For the 6 times that I snoozed, I could've just set a realistic wake up time and slept the full 7 hours instead of having constant interrupted sleep. The reason why I kept setting my alarms for 3AM, 4AM, 5AM is because I set a rule that this specific newsletter needs to go out at 6AM every Monday. "If it doesn't go out at 6AM, our subscribers will think I'm unreliable and unsubscribe!"
"If it doesn't go out at 6AM, my team is going to think I can't stick to our deadlines and they'll stop trusting me or think less of me!" *Que more people pleasing thoughts* But here's the thing that I remembered at some point last night when I said "Fuck it! I'm writing it whenever I wake up and I'm turning OFF this alarm.": I set my own deadlines. I'm the boss. How often have you felt pressure to meet a certain deadline, and as a result you ran yourself to the ground to meet the deadline you imposed on yourself AND have the authority to control? Here's what I realized: It's great to keep yourself accountable, but remember that majority of people on the internet are not keeping tabs on you. Their lives do not revolve around you. Sure, there may be a few people who wondered why I hadn't sent a newsletter out at 6AM yet, but I am almost certain that the majority of my subs weren't waking up in the AM with the Content Creator to CEO Newsletter as their first waking thought. The same thing applies to you. You may THINK the world will fall apart if you miss a post, if you cancel an event, if you say "No" to an invitation, if you ... but the truth is: The world will keep spinning, so you might as well take care of yourself first. 🌍 #2: Your values and rules control everything in your life. Alright now it's time to go beyond just meeting deadlines, because this is inspiring me to bring up something I learned at Tony Robbin's Date with Destiny (DWD) event that I want to share with you. In a nutshell, something I learned at DWD is that your values control everything in your life, and WITHIN these values, we create a subset of rules that determine how we operate in our day-to-day. For example: Before going to the DWD event, my #1 value was Praise (and no, I didn't even know that this was my #1 value until a series of exercises at the event that made me realize this myself.) After uncovering all our values, the next question Tony asks is for each value, write down what has to happen in order to feel X value. These are basically the "rules" you've subconsciously set up for yourself. Here's an example of some of mine: - Praise:
In order to feel Praise, I must have: People admiring me, telling me Iâm doing a good job, recognizing my work, seeing me as inspiration, saying that Iâve exceeded expectations - Achievement: In order to feel achievement, I must be: Winning awards, getting featured in brand names, knowing important people, having a strong resume, strong titles, being seen as successful - Capable:
In order to feel Capable, I must have: People trusting that I can get shit done just by knowing itâs in my nature, perfect execution on all things that I deliver, no one doubting my abilities, being able to tackle hard things Imagine being someone with these set of values and rules. Do you think they're happy? How do you think a person with these rules would operate in their life? If I objectively look at this... it honestly sounds like a stressful life. "In order for me to feel Capable, I must have perfect execution in all things I deliver, and people always have to trust I can get stuff done, because I can." ^ No wonder I always put myself through the on-and-off Snooze torture last night. It's because I have this rule I subconsciously set up that I ALWAYS have to deliver - no matter what!
At the DWD event, after we uncovered our current list of values and rules, we then had to "undo" them and re-frame them. So after a few hours of reflection and coaching, my new values and rules that I WANT to embody in my life looked more like this: - Courage: In order for me to feel Courage, I must be: Being honest and sharing the things that are on my mind, moving towards growth and having the courage to take on challenges to achieve my personal best. Being willing to do something different in order to achieve a different state, experience, or outcome. - Joy: In order for me to feel Joy, I must be: Choosing laughter, positivity, and finding even more joy that exists in my life - Love: In order for me to feel Love, I must be: Moving towards warmth, deepening and strengthening my relationships, lifting others up and seeking to understand all perspectives Imagine being someone with THESE set of values and rules: 1. Quite a different life
2. A lot easier to achieve Also notice that the new values that I want to embody have nothing to do with anyone else other than myself. I don't need permission from anyone to feel Courage, Joy, and Love. Of course, I'm human and I can slip back into my old values and rules of operating... and putting pressure on myself to get this newsletter out to you in time by 6AM is an example of my old value of being Capable creeping up again. HOWEVER, I'm glad that this happened because it was the reminder I needed, and I hope this reminder helps you too :) #3: A tired content creator is an uncreative content creator.Last but not least the last 10 hours of sleep torture has taught me that a tired content creator is an uncreative content creator. My creative juices right now writing this email even though I missed the deadline is completely different from the energy I had last night, struggling to even write a single sentence. Of course, being a content creator AND a business owner is hard. Not all the time can you be energetic, happy, and creative - which is why I created this newsletter in the first place because I feel you. Here are a few tips I have for you when it comes to energy preservation: - Batch and schedule content in advance (technically I should have done this, but hey - we all slip up!). - Be realistic with your output (or at least the output you communicate to your audience) For example, you can tell your audience that they can expect 1 video a week (which is your minimum) EVEN THOUGH you technically can produce 2 videos a week. Anything extra is a nice bonus, not a disappointment when it's not achieved :)Â - Under promise and overdeliver. - Have a great relationship with your community (and your team if you have one!) When you have a tight relationship with your audience and your team, you will build a community that cares about YOU as a human being - not just a content producing machine. Every time I take a break, of course there will be some people who are disappointed that they aren't getting content. However, I'm extremely lucky that the people who are the strongest advocates, genuinely prefer that I take a break or miss a deadline instead of completely burning out. Ask yourself if there's a way you can build radical transparency and authenticity with your audience. How can you be honest with them on where you're at, instead of suffering in silence and putting on a perfect persona? Remember: Authenticity rules in a sea of perfectly curated social media posts. - SLEEP! Y'all... I don't know if it's because I'm approaching 30 soon in a few years but man... I can't work like I used to without sleeping the full 8 hours. A good night's rest can do wonder for your body and mind, so learn from me: If you have the choice to work late at night vs. wake up refreshed to start the work again... ALWAYS choose the latter EVEN if it means missing a deadline. Your quality of work will significantly improve and you'll get the work done faster than if you pushed yourself to the ground to finish something. Â Â Â 👀 So, what's the recap? 1. You set your own deadlines. You choose your own experience.
Burning yourself to the ground just to meet a deadline you self imposed AND have the ability to control is a silly game to be playing. Remember: You didn't decide to be an entrepreneur to lose complete control of your sanity. We often feel pressure to grow fast, to succeed by a certain amount of time, or to look a certain way to certain people - but just remember that if these expectations are causing your mental health to deteriorate - you're still playing a short game, not a long one. Remember: You're building something great, and greatness takes time. Reconsider the harsh deadlines and expectations you've been imposing on yourself, and ask yourself: "What would this look like if it were easy?" "How do I want to feel every day in my business, and is what I'm feeling now a reflection of that?"
2. Your values and rules control everything in your life. Ask yourself what your true values are, and be honest with yourself. If you need help finding values, my recommendation is to search "List of life values" on Google and start highlighting the words that stand out to you. Of those words, you'll want to short list to your top 5 - 7. Then start ranking each value from top to bottom to see which ones you prioritize most. Once you have your list of your top 5-7 values, you then want to ask yourself "What needs to happen in order for me to feel X value?" ^ Whatever you answer are the rules you've been operating life in, whether you realize it or not. Remember: If you want to change your life, change your values and change the rules you've set up. Truth be told, most of us have set ourselves up to be unhappy, burnt out, anxious, and stressed BECAUSE of the subconscious rules we've set for ourselves, which as a result, make it so difficult for us to actually be happy. Curious to see how you'll shift after learning about this concept! 3. A tired content creator is an uncreative content creator.
Your best work happens when you are your best self. Take me for example: All my recent videos since 2022 started have been met with a lot of positive feedback. "You're energy is so different now!" "Vanessa is BACK!" "I love this new content and style!"
My secret sauce to this resurgence? 1. A shift in values.
See point #2 above. Joy is my #1 value now - so overall how I've been operating my life and biz has been pretty great because I choose it to be :) What values can you shift in order for you to finally feel good about yourself, your life, and your business? 2. Putting myself first.
> Making uncomfortable decisions because I know it will serve my company and myself the most in the long term. > SLEEPING. > Staying in my zone of genius. > Delegating AND letting go things that 1) Take a lot of effort yet 2) Don't yield high returns. For you, I want you to answer honestly: What's an area of your life you've been neglecting that you want to take better care of? What's an uncomfortable decision you're putting off? What is something you're spending A LOT of time on, but hasn't produced any type of impact in the last 6 months? ^ Psst... before you answer this question, I want you to [check out this post]( wrote on Instagram first! {NAME}, we made it and thanks for your patience for today's email! As you can see, I'm having too much fun in Los Cabos 😂 Here's a pic of me at the Marina yesterday: As always: If you got to the bottom of this email,  screenshot and post your favourite section of the email in your Instagram stories, and tag me @vanessalau.co ! â¤ï¸ï¸ Seeing your stories about the newsletter is literally THE highlight of my Mondays - I always look forward to checking out my story mentions to see which parts of the email resonated with you. I'll be checking even though I'm in Cabo right now! My mission with these emails is to make your journey easier than it was for me, and to guide you into becoming the Content Creator and CEO you dream to become. Until next week, Vanessa - your content creator to CEO mentor 😊 PS: If you're someone who's interested in learning how to level up your earning potential - [this week's Youtube video]( worth checking out. Yes, I know the thumbnail is cringey AF, but I explain WHY within the first minute of the video. Regardless if you are in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond - I know that this video will give you a lot of great insights on the 4 ways to build wealth in 2022, my experience with investing, and my thoughts when it comes to increasing your net worth. Give it a chance, and [click here to watch the video]( :) Psst... you would like to learn how to monetize your content, then [click here]( and attend my free training if you haven't already. This is where I share the steps on monetizing as a content creator with 1:1 coaching or consulting offers. 😊 - Vanessa [Click here]( if you do not want to receive further emails about the 'Confessions of a Content Creator to CEO' newsletter Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( Vanessa Lau International Inc., PO BOX 27371 Garden City PO, Richmond, British Columbia V6Y0E9, Canada
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