Well, it's time for the annual hunting trip. I'll be gone (potentially off-grid) for the next couple of weeks. I'll try to post when I can, but I can't promise anything. During this time, I challenge you to look back at 2025 and thoroughly assess how it's gone so far. If you had any goals, did you achieve them? If not, why not (yet)? As you probably have noticed, I'm a firm believer in not just setting goals, but in developing a plan to attain them. When I return, I'll address this issue more in depth as we finish up 2025 and get ready for 2026. Thank you all for your engagement and don't be afraid to post in the community! Let me leave you with a quote to ponder... One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted to do. Do it now! -- Paulo Coelho

Hey everybody, I have been trying for two days to upload the new Socratic Warrior Action Checklist to the classroom, but Skool is being very finicky. So, I'm going to attach it to this post. Let me know if it works for you and if you have questions or comments...I'm here for you! Have a GREAT weekend 😎

Years ago, I got my wife the little sign below. During my treadmill walk today (I always watch or listen to informational content), I heard one of the absolute gurus in the personal training niche say something similar... 'you may have many clients, but they have only one coach!' Both of these phrases point to the same focus--you need to personalize your service. If you're paying a lot of good money to be coached, you expect to be coached, right? It's nice to say you care about the dozens, if not hundreds, of clients your coach works with (especially since most successful coaches are using AI to assist them). But are you getting the 'personal' training and transformation you signed up for? If you're a coach or other service provider, are you personalizing the experience for each client? What's the #1 reason people fail in coaching programs? Accountability! AI has gotten so good that anybody with a few fundamentals in prompting can develop an exercise program tailored to them, a personalized nutrition plan, an accurate family budget and spending/savings plan, and even relationship advice. But AI's downfall is accountability! In Skool's 'tier' program, as the levels and pricing increase, so should the access to the owners or their teams. In a 'free' tier, everyone gets similar access; in a 'premium' tier, maybe some group interaction; but in a VIP level, the access should be pretty personalized. Look at the mastermind programs going for 5, 6, even 7 figures. Do you think the leaders are just sending them some AI-generated notes on making money, with a couple of testimonials thrown in at the end? Probably not! Suppose you have the credentials, education, and experience in your niche (like all your competitors). In that case, your most significant competitive advantage is making the transformation experience as unique and personal as possible for every client. If you do that, you'll get plenty of referrals, and you can charge high-ticket prices WITHOUT chasing low-ticket clients who will take up your time and patience.

I was just visiting another Skool and found this "Nice Takeaway": Focus less on finding opportunities and more on becoming the kind of person opportunities find. That's the kind of vibe that reminds me of this Skool, Socratic Warrior. Good work @Michael Martin

Several best-selling books on performance improvement/self-help discuss making small/tiny improvements every day to achieve marked improvement in the future. The British Cycling Federation hired Sir David Brailsford to take over as head coach. He developed the concept of 'the aggregation of marginal gains.' James Clear discusses this philosophy in Atomic Habits. Brailsford looked at every component of world-class cycling and then tried to figure out how to improve each area by the slightest amount, resulting in marginal gains. However, the aggregation of all these tiny changes yielded huge gains over time. How can you apply this principle? Over the past 50 years I have seen people who try to make big changes all at once and then giving up because it/they were overwhelmed. Let's look at three common areas for most people — diet, exercise, and finances. Instead of trying a new diet and throwing out everything in your pantry that doesn't align with it, then restocking it with 100s of dollars' worth of new items, focus on small changes and be consistent. For example, start by replacing one 'bad' food with a 'good' one. Do this every week and see what happens. Instead of jumping into a new exercise program (e.g., buying new gear, getting fitness tech gadgets, hiring a fitness coach), start off with the simple act of walking for 5 minutes. And then gradually increase it each week. There are plenty of free programs out there that can take you from 'being sedentary to being fit' without a lot of overpriced gear and gadgets. Instead of setting lofty saving/spending goals you can't sustain, start small and build momentum with small wins. Start by looking at your income and expenses. Try to exchange one expenditure for an increase in savings. For example, if you buy a couple of lattes or energy drinks every day, cut back to one a day, then every other day... and then put that money into savings or toward paying down your highest-interest accounts. What's one thing you can apply the marginal gains principle to? How will it change your life?