I shared this as an Omen yesterday, but I know the Omens are relatively undiscovered at this moment and might be seen in the Weekly Note that you’ll receive later today, but I wanted to share this as a Note to give it a chance for more people to see.

I hope that it:

1.) Encourages anyone thinking of doing something similar, or not similar, to follow their intuition, even if it goes against past experiences and “logic” as accepted by society.

2.) Encourages more people to respond to Notes, subscribe to the AlignedLife blog and podcast, tune into YouTube more often, and be on the lookout for opportunities to hop on Zoom calls with other “authenticists”.

I debated even making a post about this and intentionally sharing it—part of me thought I shouldn’t make a big deal about it (which I’m not) and just do it. But I was afraid that not responding to comments or DMs on LinkedIn might make people think I’m ignoring them. So the Omen was written, shared on LI via Buffer, and I’m sharing it via the Daily Notes.

I’m looking forward to creating more, connecting in more meaningful ways, and finally embracing the wannabe-underground-hip-hop-artist in me.

It’s time…

Social media no longer aligns with me energetically. Whenever I log in, I find my Self more annoyed than joyful from what I see in my feed. While it doesn’t impact my life, it’s become a waste of energy—a misalignment of energy.

With the time and energy reclaimed by reducing my time on platforms to purely distribution, I will have more time and energy to do what I love—create more content—and pursue what I believe is going to be more important and valuable in the future, actual human connection, in addition to more time for my Self, family, existing clients, and the clients who will be coming for AlignedLife+. I’ll also be able to replace scroll time with reading, listening, writing, watching, meditating, or just thinking.

What I plan on doing goes against the advice I’ve received from some very smart people.

It goes against everything we’re told to do in order to grow.
It goes against logic.
But, it feels right…despite being scary.

It actually feels exciting.

And I genuinely believe, almost to the point of believing, that once I “let go” (a recent theme in my Daily Notes), I’ll begin to grow my reach and impact in a faster and more meaningful way than what doing what I have been doing has done.

I’m going to show you that you can actually grow and make a greater impact by going underground.

The blueprint…

Social media: LinkedIn, Substack, and IG to an extent

- Purely distribution.

- Post via Buffer or other third-party app

- Daily Notes on LinkedIn and Substack will need to be done on the site, but it’s log in, write, post, and dip

- Through post and content, drive traffic to other opportunities to connect.

- 15 min a day on IG to be able to document my authentic life and to keep up to date with friends

How To Connect and Engage

- Begin holding regular Zoom calls with a specific topic for each session.

- Share invite via social media (via Buffer), include in Weekly Notes, mention in podcast episodes, and YouTube videos.

- Each session will have some prerequisites, like a podcast, blog post, quote, etc., to spark the conversation.

- I’m thinking about starting with every other week—will pick a day and time for it to always be.

- Encourage people to engage in the inbox.

- If warranted, hop on Zoom or a phone call to take the conversation out of the inbox.

- In-person gatherings.

- PRST ruck club

- PRST yoga in the park

- Start these locally, but eventually take them on the road with any travel I do—collaborate with local businesses when on the road.

- The in-person gatherings will grow over time as I get to know the people and their interests.

How Can I Continue To Elevate and Shine Light On Others?

- AlignedLife podcast guests

- Increase my curation of content to highlight others

- In Omens posts

- People You Should Know page on my website​

- Add people to the lists as I meet great people who deserve more shine

- Categories of Spirit, Mind, Body, Money, Writers, Podcasts, and Misc (including brands)

- This will have low impact at first, but eventually, as I share the list with Daily Notes, Weekly Notes, and mention on AlignedLife podcast and videos, it will eventually receive more traffic than social media was giving me when I highlighted others.

- Can still use social media distribution to draw attention to the highlights.

- Continue to make authentic connections when warranted.

Increase My Content Output

- Start regular AMA video (eventually making it a livestream)

- More topical videos with Morgan editing (not just me in front of the camera alone)

- Restart reading AlignedLife blog posts and expanding upon them

- Vlogs that are valuable, not just day in the life BS

- Solo AlignedLife episodes

- More Omens documenting thoughts and sharing interesting stuff—old school blog

- Restart the Week In Review video for Santiago, but still good content for the channel

- Begin to bring back some curation to The Weekly Note

- Maintain Daily Note

- Continue AlignedLife blog to help with writing the book.

- Finish the book

- Get my J. Cole on selling it out the trunk and documenting it.

- Start recording video to document the process of writing for a mini-doc to help promote the book.

Where do I get my community-fix without social media?

- AGC

- The Leading Edge

- Anya IWA cohort

- My already existing friends

- The community that forms from all of the above sections

- People I need to know will continue to show up when they are supposed to

What Has Kept Me From Doing This?

- Fear

- Of not being discovered—my message not finding those who would benefit from hearing it

- Of not growing my business since social has always been a big part of my growth now that I’m back in controlled growth mode

- Of not meeting new great people (all of my closest friends have started out on social)

- Of missing out (a little)

- Of being forgotten (probably more than I want to admit or should care—damn ego)

- All of this fear tells me I’m supposed to do this.

I have to give a big shoutout to my good friend Matt Zeigler, who always manages to remind me to think about being underground—I’ve shared a bunch of these moments in past Notes and on podcasts. This week, he sent me this interview, and listening to Roc Marciano this morning sparked the writing of this post.

​

I have told a few people this week everything I just shared, but speaking about it is one thing—putting it down on “paper” is another. The final step to seeing this all play out better than I could ever imagine is to take a step down this path, which I’ve already done.

I know only a handful of people will see this post on or around 2.28.26, but I wanted to make sure I had it documented so I can resurface it in the future and say, “I told you what I was going to do!”

I’m looking forward to being more present, accessible, and engaged with the people who matter the most, while still hoping that the social channels help those who would benefit from my content find it. So just know that I’m here, accessible, and excited to engage with you—I’m not going dark, just finally going underground as I’ve always said I wanted to be.​

I’m at peace with finally doing this.

​
​

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC