The 7-day exercise

I use to plan a year’s worth of content

Attempt at your own risk at any point in your journey

The end of my first four decades on this planet passed this week.

Around this time last year, I had been toying with the idea of improving my writing.

• My gaming YouTube channel of over three years was coming to a head as I wrapped up my last video that completed my strategy guide for an entire game.
• I was adjusting to a new home and the rhythm of school life for my oldest as well as reliving the joys of caring for a one-year-old.
• I was reflecting on what it meant to settle down so that both of my children would have stability in a nice community.

I also had no plan for the next year.

The only thing I had was an idea…

A vision.

A dream.

I decided to commit to one year of attempting a writing endeavor like so many other content creators who have appeared on the stage this past year.

I’m glad I did.

Now that the first year is coming to an end, I’m taking 7 days (not in a row and a story for another time) to plan out the next year.

Better structure.

Better focus.

More meaningful results.

Here’s an overview of what I’m in the process of doing until the end of the year…

Day 1 — Where did the time go??

Each month this year had a theme and its challenges.

I was fortunate enough to have the foresight to document it in thread format on the Elon platform or Twitter/X or Twi(X) or whatever it’s called now. Going through each thread will take time and I still have two more months remaining before this is complete…

You may find that a social media audit is for yourself if you are an aspiring content creator. The writing’s on the wall when it comes to the next stage of evolution, and there is plenty of debate about when that singularity event will occur.

X makes this pretty easy as to just export the . CSV file or the entirety of the account. It might be trickier for LinkedIn and YouTube. External metrics are a very flimsy indicator for quality, though, so I’m taking these numbers with a grain of salt…or maybe a block.

Reflecting on what I truly enjoyed writing about the most as well as how well it resonated with my audience is also appealing for this first day.

Day 1 is about thinking on the challenges I faced and lessons I learned this year.

Day 2 — Pick the targets

I make (gasp) SMART goals for the upcoming year for my writing and content production.

For a while this year, I fell in the trap of focusing on subscribers or followers by a certain date.

It was not a good mental space to be in.

Instead, I plan on structuring 90-day sprints that have two or three output-oriented goals (number of articles or videos).

Honestly, I hated goals because I tend to freak out about deadlines. It’s because I don’t like long-term commitments because they feel like constraints on my freedom.

I know this isn’t true at all and that a meaningful life is a series of projects and activities that are completed with intent, focus, and presence.

If you feel the same way about commitments, it’s time to bite the bullet and realize that some of your greatest moments in life were defined by these endeavors…but maybe that’s just me.

Day 2 is about SMART goals so get some real (reasonable) numbers to aim for the next year.

Day 3 — DTR and the persona

I’ve been writing as mainly “normal me”…

The bland version of me that gets up, takes my kid to school, goes to work, returns home, takes care of the family, cleans the house, puts everyone to bed, and sits down to work on this endeavor.

This next year is called “project presence”…both the noun and verb of project.

I’m still going to be me, but I want to take it up a notch.

• Beyonce → Sasha Fierce
• Bruce Wayne → Batman
• Tony Stark has → eh still him but with an armored suit?

You get the picture.

There’s a “super” version of you that emerges in certain settings…this is the version that gets people’s attention. Nobody looks twice at the mild-mannered person in the cubicle, but give him some tights and a cape and it’s a different story entirely. (I know he’s an alien but it’s an example).

Day 3 is about finding the you that you’d be onstage if you had all the confidence in the world and knew you had something to offer.

Day 4 — Content “strategy”

This past year has been me reading A LOT of books, consuming videos, and chewing through goodies from amazing creators in the writing space to find my voice…

I took the time to discover what I wanted to write about, and the next year is where I figured out the best way to write about my experiences in my own words.

The classic three tiers of the writing pyramid:

• short form — X posts, shorts
• medium form — newsletter, articles
• long form — YouTube videos, a book (good gravy)

As I mentioned earlier, my opinion on the matter of “sticking to one platform” has evolved this year…especially with recent revelations about what is important to me.

If I have something to say, I might as well say it to the world and see what sticks.

The best way to do this is to be on everything, everywhere, all at once (I have yet to watch that movie.)

Day 4 is about outlining how to distribute thoughts and ideas in a sustainable fashion.

Day 5 — Hammer time

Up to this point, everything was about laying the groundwork and the structural outline. This day is to fill in the details on execution.

I’ll probably break it up into quarters, months, and weekly plans.

If any of you have used Dan Koe’s “Power Planner” for a year, this should sound familiar but any system that works for you can fit the bill here.

I’ve been using it this year, and it’s been pretty handy, but I wasn’t utilizing it to maximum effectiveness since I didn’t have a solid idea of where I was going.

Now I do, though.

Project Presence is my vision for treating everything I do with as much professionalism as I did onstage as a performer. It’s been taking shape with my mentors over the past few months, and again, this 7-day process is my attempt to solidify it for the next year.

Every piece of content has the potential to become an expanded version of itself or repurposed refined or reduced.

Everything can be documented.

Everything counts.

Day 5 is where the details take shape and where a plan of action forms.

Day 6 — Farm to Factory

This part of the process wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t already put in a substantial amount of time on what is affectionately known as “Money X”.

For the uninitiated, it is a region of the Elon platform that has been in existence for a few years now but really popped up on the map with COVID.

If you want a primer on all things digital entrepreneur-related, this is a place that can give you a lot of insight and tools to get started and is a great complementary area to YouTube education.

Without this, I wouldn’t have come so far and discovered Medium and the vast universe of online writing.

However, there is one caveat about these last two days…it’s not for everyone necessarily. If you’re not interested in monetization or generating a side income for the long term, I wouldn’t worry about these steps.

This is the day where I brainstormed what I can offer from every angle imaginable.

Sure, I could have taken this step much earlier on, but my brain simply did not work that way at the beginning of this journey.

It took months to break down the typical walls that are endemic of the 9–5 perspective. AKA the drone/cog/worker ant mentality that significantly hampers any aspirations of starting your own venture (whatever form it may take).

I always knew this was an option, but I never considered it to be one for me.

I could write plenty about this perspective, but I won’t here.

I’ll be brainstorming low, mid, and high ticket offers…and maybe one irresistible one. Or it is that every one of them can be irresistible like Alex Hormozi and Russell Brunson say?

Day 6 is about mapping out a lineup of products and/or services that could come from the effort in the next year.

Day 7 — I love it when a plan comes together

On this final day, I take everything that’s come from the last 6 days and iron it into a calendar format to plan out exactly what I want to hit at every waypoint.

It most likely won’t work out the way I plan…but as the saying goes:

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

It’s a day to refine and tweak the results that came from putting my brain through the panini press (mmm, brains). I would like to share it here in detail for you so that you can do your own process.

Project Presence…coming soon

So this is a 7-day plan to get anyone started on the year ahead. The prerequisite for this particular one is that you had to have put significant effort into flying by the seat of your pants and “climbing the wall on your own” beforehand.

I had no clue as to how I was going to get going when I started a year ago yet somehow, I’ve managed to make it this far.

As of this writing, I’ve made it through the first 3 days of this challenge for myself. The key is to maintain momentum between days because you can’t stop this for a few weeks and to the next day.

Too many things change between them if you do.

On Medium, I have two things I plan to offer shortly:

• 7-day program of self-discovery for people who want to start writing and how I stumbled my way through it for a year
• 7-day program to plan out a multi-faceted content creation strategy based on the previous outcome

Like the vast majority of aspiring content creators, I have no clue what I’m doing.

I know I’m violating at least a dozen laws of building a business that anyone who’s been through a formal MBA program would fillet me for.

It’s ok. I hit 40 and decided to jump in feet first.

This is my process.

Whatever comes of it in the coming year, I hope what I plan to share will serve you on your journey.

This is Project Presence.

Thanks for reading to the end!

Remember that microwaves don’t heat all food equally in the same amount of time, that people rarely remember what you posted yesterday, and that your dog will always find a way to nab that little morsel out of your 2-year-old’s hand no matter where he stands.