You’re either going to find me really weird just now or totally get what I’m about to say. Here goes:

Have you ever had one of those friends or acquaintances who’s so amazing that, whenever you hang out with them, you feel like,
I wish I could just plug my brain into your brain and upload everything from it!!!!

?

THAT is how I feel about my friend Karen Ward. And I’ve been trying to figure out the best way for YOU to get to hang out with her, so I came up with two things. One: I’ve asked her to run a live class with me on Monday March 23rd (@ 2pm ET) — not an affiliate thing, just because she’s so smart and I want you to meet her.

Two: Below, I’m faking you two having a conversation by transcribing one I had with her.

That way, you’ll know what a genius she is in (almost) REAL TIME.

First — the class and Q&A. It’s about how to find ideas when you think you’re not good at it, and she’s calling it:

Excavate Your Everyday Life — a four-step framework.

Aka How to find ideas for your business by doing fun stuff you ALREADY enjoy doing.

You can get all the info sent straight to you by popping your details in here:*

But the cliff notes are: Mon March 23rd @ 2pm ET on Zoom. Pop it in your calendar.

HERE IS WHAT KAREN WARD SAID THE LAST TIME WE WERE CHATTING

(just try and imagine me there nodding emphatically and looking at her all 😍😍😍😍😍😍)

“In order to come up with better ideas, we have to learn how to draw inspiration from absolutely everything, to stimulate our thinking about our business problems by tuning into what surrounds us all the time.

When the only things we read are articles about SEO or Facebook Ads or The Ten Best Ways To Get Clicks On Pinterest — it’s useful, but it’s limited.

When we only consume this type of skills-based content our lateral thinking muscles get flabby. If you don’t give yourself time to read and watch and listen to things beyond what you need immediately to do a thing, you’re going to struggle to generate new ideas, fresh thinking when you need that. And you might also become a boring human.

So, I encourage people to wander and wonder around a bit…talk to strangers, read random sh*t, binge on Netflix and listen to podcasts that make them feel something (not just learn something).

THESE are the things that make you interesting and give you interesting things to talk and write about. Laura Belgray does this brilliantly. So do you Marsha. And anyone who sends you emails you love to read does it too. They connect funny, touching, often random things from their lives with the stuff they want to do, create and talk about in their businesses. And we love it because it makes them relatable, it brings us closer to them as people, and it helps us understand how they can help us.

Now before you think, “but *I couldn’t do that…” I want you to know this deep in your bones:

That capacity for dot collecting, and dot connecting, for creative lateral thinking is available to EVERYONE.

And I want to help people do this — to come up with interesting ideas that came from reading or watching or doing something they actually enjoy*. And I want to do that in a way that has a bit of structure and a lot of community so it feels way more like dot collecting, dot connecting, insight and idea generating fun, and much less like mindless faffing about.

With a bit of structure, a dash of guidance and loads of encouragement, you don’t have to worry about falling down the rabbit hole, clicking from article to article to article, watching endless videos on YouTube and then suddenly it’s four days later [Note from YYMarsha: IT ME].

And that’s what this Excavate Your Everyday Life four-part framework is all about..bringing some structure to the ’slacking’ so you can use it. And that’s what my new thing, The Monthly Major, is all about too…I can’t wait to talk about both of them so your YYM community can read and watch and listen and do the stuff they love to do GUILT FREE because they will be able to use it in their their work and creative projects.

[Note from YYMarsha: This is what I call “D.A.T.” — “D—cking Around Time,” something that’s often essential for our mental health, but which we rarely allow ourselves to do without guilt and self-punishment]

Having a portion of your month dedicated to this — as PART OF your business, not as a break from it — is essential if you want to succeed.

It will enrich your life. And having some structure around it, and people to help you figure out what questions to ask in order to apply it to your business?

It will change the way you see the world.

I saw it when I worked in corporate, I’ve seen it in my photo project My Curious Eyes. Now I’m making it bigger and making it practical and I’m showing it to YOU.”

DOESN’T THAT SOUND AMAZING????!!

So, take-aways:

1) it’s ok to d—ck around a bit, as long as you have some structure to it. It will ENRICH your work, not take away from it.

2) Karen Ward is going to show you EXACTLY how to do this in the free class on Monday March 23rd. Then, after, she’ll answer a bunch of your questions (about anything, really). YOU NEED TO BE ON THIS CALL. A reminder that I am selling nothing via Karen on this call. I say this because she is honestly one of the wisest humans I know. I want her on my armageddon team if Coronavirus/global warming/the politics of the US, the UK and Ontario try and take us all down (poi poi poi).

Want all the details (& reminders) emailed to you? Put your details in here:*

You rule,

xx (Yes Yes) Marsha

*you’ll also be added — for free — to the Yes Yes Family, where you’ll get free, coaching via email on how to Be Unforgettable. You can unsubscribe literally as soon as the class is done, if you like, and I won’t be even slightly offended. Because there is such a thing as a free lunch :)