It doesn’t matter if you haven’t posted at all or post every day, I haven’t met a single person who doesn’t feel resistance with their content.
I feel it almost all the time.
“Is this hook good enough?”
“Will people think it’s not that impressive if I’m documenting my journey to make $150,000”
“Do I need to clarify in every reel that it’s $150,000 from July to December so it sounds more impressive than ‘only’ $150k in a year?”
Yeah… I deal with it.
In fact, I’ve been asking my followers what they like about my content and what they want to see more of (btw – feel free to reply to this email and let me know what you’d like more of) and one of them said he loves how happy and authentic I am.
He flat out made this statement as if it were the truth, “You are free from those restraints. You don’t care about what other people think, you just do it.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I think my biggest wound is being a people pleaser. Overthinking everything to make sure that I don’t upset anyone.
In fact, I would do well to care LESS and upset more people online.
More haters = more loyal fans who feel more seen.
I told him, “I’ll never not care what people think about me. It’s about doing it anyway.” [re: mullet reel]
Every action I take with that fear is another rep of doing whatever I want and finding out I had nothing to be afraid of all along. I think of it like working out. I’m building the muscle of confidence with each rep.
Likewise, every time I let perceived judgement stop me, it’s another rep toward the muscle of fear.
This is the kicker, I’m not pretending I don’t care what others think.
If you’ve done any internal work you’ve probably realized by now that the shadows only get darker when you ignore them, or worse, when you shame them for being there in the first place.
The shadows will seize to exist when you shine the light on them.
Love is the light.
Love is expansion.
It’s the fucking best feeling there is.
Can’t you remember a time when you were so full of love that everything was just groovy.
All the fears and worries you were holding just yesterday now seem so insignificant.
It’s all good baby babaaaaaay.
Biggie said that.
That’s the energy I’m talking about.
So let’s stop pretending and let’s start expanding.
The Expansion Protocol
Here is the visualization.
Now let’s break it down.
Step 1: Edge
What do you really want to say online if you knew EVERYONE would love it and it would go viral and lead to getting everything you want in life?
Take a minute, really.
Think about it.
You better not just keep reading… seriously, do it.
Okay thanks, I trust you.
If you want, and you’re in a private safe space… say it out loud.
Why don’t ya just fucking scream.
Try it on real quick.
Bet that felt good.
Now, think of your reason for not saying that online.
What are you really afraid of?
Go ahead, name it.
Say it out lout if you’re brave (you don’t have to scream it).
Cool. Cool. Cool.
Take a deep breath.
Soften into whatever you’re feeling right now.
Alright…
We’re gonna stop being an asshole to this fear.
It’s here because it wants to protect you.
Isn’t that so nice?
How cute of this fear.
What do you think it wants to protect you from?
Wow… that’s so nice that the fear doesn’t want that to happen you to you.
Incredibly considerate.
Are you up for telling this fear how much you appreciate it for being here?
Yeah?
Try it on.
Go ahead.
Don’t you dare do it sarcastically, I told you were not gonna be a dick to the fear.
We’re actually going to appreciate it.
“Thanks for being here fear. It’s actually really beautiful that you’re here and you have my back.”
That was kinda nice, wasn’t it?
I don’t know, maybe.
If it was your first time it may have been weird. You and the fear are both pretty use to you being a dick to it. That might have been uncomfortable, and that’s okay.
Like anything new, it’s awkward.
But the good news is you’re going to do this again, and again, and again.
Soon enough, it will feel warm and wonderful and you’ll get excited about uncovering more of these shadows because you realize that you have the power to become love all over.
This is the first step in the Expansion Protocol.
Find your edge. In this case we chose speaking your truth on social media which comes with some emotional baggage. Then we met those emotions with love.
Now, I’m not sure what your edge is, but think of it like this…
If you’ve never lifted a weight in your life, nobody would expect you to enter the gym and deadlift 500 pounds.
Maybe you start with 135. You bust out 8 reps and on the 9th, you hit failure.
The 9th rep at 135 was your edge. You pushed it a bit so that next week you can come back and either do 10 reps or increase the weight or both.
Everyone has a different edge.
I can almost promise you, my edge is not yours.
I don’t expect you to do announce your journey to $150,000 by the end of the year and share all the fears that come up.
Your nervous system can’t handle that shit.
But maybe your edge is telling the internet you take your coffee with lots of sugar and a splash of cream.
And then you go, “yeah but that’s such a silly thing to be worried about. That’s not vulnerable compared to the shit Matt talks about.”
BRO!
WTF DID WE JUST WORK ON?!??!
Stop being an asshole to yourself!!! (I say with love because I get it… I truly do)
It’s your edge and it’s OKAY to be afraid of sharing that.
You didn’t see the shit I used to be afraid of sharing 6 years ago. Stop comparing my 2000th post to your 100th.
The Expansion Protocol asks you to meet this self criticism with love—please and thank you.
The shame is trying to protect you.
The shame needs love too.
When these parts of you stop being shoved away or shamed and are met with love, they will finally realize they have access to love too and then… there’s not much left for them to fear and now you have space to take action.
Taking action is the next step in the protocol. In this case, it’s time to create and post the content.
Step 2: Action
Guess what you’ll do in the midst of taking action?
Meet the fears, frustrations and all those “negative” emotions with love.
Negative is in quotes because they’re actually not bad. Remember, they’re here because they *think they need to protect you because they learned it wasn’t safe to boldly speak your truth to potentially millions of strangers online (and your friends from high school, and the mentors you hold in high regard, and your older brother, and that cutie you met last week in Cabo (what? who typed that… she’s probably reading this because she signed up for your storytelling course. DELETE. DELETE. psych. Keep it in)).
So you’re trying to edit a video in CapCut and you’re pissed because it’s taking so long and, “I bet it doesn’t take Matt this long!”
First of all, you have no idea how long my videos take to edit 😅 you’re making up stories to keep yourself safe (btw they’re all different, but if you must know, just the editing can take 1-4 hours).
Second of all, in what world do you become an expert video editor by the third video?
Remember, nobody would expect you to deadlift 500 pounds in the gym in your first 5 years of lifting, let alone your 4th week here.
Sadly, I don’t think telling you this does you any good.
YOU
HAVE
TO
DO
THE
WORK
The work is not grinning and bearing it and ignoring these feelings and shaming them.
The work is to meet the part of you that’s frustrated about the editing process (or whatever action your in the midst of taking) with love.
When the frustrated part gets to be seen, you get to ask it how it would like to make the content. Because maybe editing this video isn’t even the move.
The options are endless.
If the goal is to get this message out, there are soooo many ways to do that!
Just this week, I wanted to tell my “Founder Story” because it’s what we’re working on in the Growth Community this month.
After spending 40 minutes writing the story, I could NOT get myself to start editing the video. I could not figure out how to make the video fun. I could feel this frustration begin to rise.
Instead of forcing my way through it, I got lovingly curious on what frustration wanted. It wanted to have fun.
So I asked it what I think would be fun.
Frustration said it wanted to do that “Father Christmas” AI voice over trend we saw months ago.
So I said, okay let’s do it.
Immediately, my energy shifted into excitement and creativity.
I began re-writing my Founder Story and spent the next 2 hours making this video.
Not only did I have fun making it, but you all enjoyed the hell out of watching it. The comments are off the charts!
You may be thinking, “what a waste of time to delete a script you spent time writing.”
So so false.
A waste of time is forcing yourself to do things that you know are going to be draining and doing them anyway.
At the end of my life I’d love to look back on the emotional pie chart of my time on earth and see that the biggest slices are joy and love.
Yet, most of choose to engage with life where we believe enjoyment is on the other side getting all this shit done.
If I just get this post out, then I’ll get more followers, then I’ll make more sales, then I’ll have more money, then I’ll be able to go to Italy, then I’ll be enjoying life.
Bro… how long are you going to keep convincing yourself that enjoyment is somewhere outside of right here, right now?
That is some serious TGIF energy.
Instead of shoving frustration aside and grin and bearing my way through an edit which for sure would have produced a boring ass video nobody else would have enjoyed which would have lead to further frustration… I sought love now.
I’m pretty good at doing this with content because I’ve had a lot of reps. You may not be.
The goal isn’t to get it right. It’s to practice loving curiosity with Frustration, take action and gather information.
Did that work?
Did we like that?
Was it fun?
No, that’s okay. You get to practice more loving curiosity.
Yes? Amazing! Let’s do more of that.
Now you’ve made the video where you speak your truth and you’re gonna shit your pants as you post it because it’s so scary but it’s okay to be scared and you know the only way forward is through—you hit post.
The final step is receiving feedback from the world.
Step 3: Feedback
You haven’t actually “done the work” until you’ve gotten here.
This is the final stage of embodiment.
To truly step into the confident, bold, badass, millionaire, strong, heart-led leader and entrepreneur you desire to be.
You have no control over what happens when you hit post except for how you handle it all.
Do you obsessively check who’s liking it?
Are you devastated because only 2 people liked it?
Are you quietly happy you got 2 likes and nobody saw it so you can stay hidden?
Does it get 500 likes?
10 hate comments and now you feel like thee whole world hates you?
You lose 20 followers because of it?
Gain 1,000?
Maybe your high school friends do think you’re pathetic.
Maybe your mentor does think you’re an absolute dumbass.
Then what?
Whatever happens, you get to meet your emotions with love and finally move through them and show these fears that YOU GOT THIS.
You won’t end up alone, poor and living under a bridge.
Imagine though. Someone makes one IG post and ends up poor, alone and living under a bridge.
I’m teasing you.
We’re just playing a little bit.
It’s cute how badly the fears want to protect us.
I love you buddy.
And you can stay.
And you can feel it all.
And I’ll be here the whole time loving you the way you never got to be loved.
And once you see that you have access to love, what edge would you like to pay in next?
Who else do you get to become?
And you’ll do this over and over and over again, which means when you look at the entire protocol from the side, it looks like this:
You will spend your life doing this.
There’s no arriving.
Simply learning how to fall in love with the journey of life.
Amor Fati: The love of ones fate.
Not to simply bear the hard times, but to love them.
Upwardly spiraling into the person you dream of becoming and when you become her, you get to become her again and again and again.
This isn’t just a protocol for content creation.
This is a protocol for life.
If you are looking to immerse yourself in a community of heart-centered, personal growth obsessed leaders who want to change the world with their content and work, click here to join the waitlist for the next cohort of StoryGrowth.
The Voldemort Project Update
$3,766.01
Don’t get me started on that penny 😂
I’m getting closer to believing this fall cohort will be application only and be limited in spots, so being on the waitlist will give you first notice just in case it sells out.
I honestly have no idea if it would. Not trying to be salesy, just wanting you to have the option to be the first to know in case you feel like this is something you don’t want to miss out on.
I’m also getting closer to believing this needs to be a year long commitment for at least $2000 with a retreat included and I’m not gonna lie, it scares me to go high ticket. If this fails, I don’t know wtf I’ll do for income. But plan B’s have never really been my thing. It’s plan A or bust.
Click here to join the waitlist.
Sick.
Love you,
Matt
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