Have you ever spent an ungodly amount of time working on something, only to realize you’ve accomplished next to nothing? 

If you feel so mentally disheveled that you put off things you know you need to get done, then this week’s newsletter is for you.  

We’ll be discussing how you can become more efficient in 3 key areas in life — health, mindset, and business.

Here’s an overview of what you need to know:

• The causes of brain fog and the lifestyle changes you need to make immediately.

• The real reason you procrastinate & a framework to help you stop.

• A step-by-step guide to turning your knowledge into a profitable digital asset.

HEALTH – Brain Fog: The Clarity Code

What is Brain Fog?

Have you ever felt swept up in a whirlwind of your own thoughts? 

Every time you try to focus, you can’t seem to pull your thoughts together to even respond to an email. 

Thinking becomes such an arduous task that you settle for a day of “Netflix and chilling” just to distract yourself from your own mental disorganization.

This is brain fog. 

Brain fog is something to take seriously. Without clear, goal-oriented thoughts, you’ll be like an asteroid floating in space…directionless with no purpose. 

Imagine the positive impact you could have in business and your life overall if you could maintain mental clarity.

That’s why for this week's health topic I want to provide clarity on what causes brain fog and what you can do to regain mental clarity.

The Causes of Brain Fog

The following infographic highlights the six most common causes of brain fog.

Of the top 6 causes of brain fog, one poses a unique obstacle when it comes to achieving the mental clarity needed to live more efficiently.

Can you guess which one?

It’s ALCOHOL. 

Let’s talk about why getting sober as quickly as possible is definitely in your best interest.

Get Sober…Like Yesterday!

Earlier this year, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general released a report linking alcohol consumption to cancer.

In addition to increasing your cancer risk, alcohol consumption is linked to liver disease, heart problems, and mental health disorders.

The following two graphics from the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General highlight the ways in which alcohol causes cancer and shows the correlation between the amount of alcohol consumed and the increased rate of cancer.

As someone who stopped drinking Tequila (my formerly preferred spirit), but was still indulging with wine, this information was the kick in the pants I needed to go completely sober.

I asked myself, “How does drinking wine improve my life?”

The only answer I could come up with is “It doesn’t”. 

Let’s call a thing a thing…alcohol is a coping mechanism, nothing more.

Your Sprint Towards Sobriety in 3 Easy Steps

1. Your Why

   Identify which feelings are causing you to want to drink, then research and implement healthier ways to cope with those feelings. Consider options like mindfulness meditation, regular exercise, or seeking support from a therapist or counselor.

2. Satisfying the Urges

   When you feel the urge to drink, substitute the alcohol with a glass of sparkling water, herbal tea, or any other healthy, non-alcoholic beverage.

3. Seek Accountability

   Share your goal of getting sober with a friend or mentor. They can help impart the willpower you’ll need to stay on track. Once people know your goals, it’s human nature to not want to appear like a failure in their eyes.

Quick Fixes for Quick Wins

While long-term lifestyle changes are crucial for addressing the root cause of brain fog, there are two options that may help you significantly improve your mental clarity in the short-term. These should be seen as supplementary to, not replacements for, long-term solutions.

Option 1: NeuroGum – This innovative product combines caffeine with other nootropics (mental performance boosters) to enhance focus and mental clarity. Click here to check out what people are saying about their experience with NeuroGum.

Option 2: Real Mushrooms Lion’s Mane – Extracts of this mushroom stimulates nerve growth factor production which supports the regeneration of healthy neurons in the brain. So, if you’re not a gum person, click here to see if a lion’s mane supplement is a better option for you.

PSYCHOLOGY – Procrastination: How to Ensure Tomorrow Finally Comes

Let’s keep this short and sweet. 

I wouldn’t want you to procrastinate on completing a task that would move the needle in your life or business because you burned up too much time reading about procrastination.

The Real Reasons You Procrastinate

1. Blurred boundaries

   There’s a thin line between personal and professional life. Many struggle to separate their business and personal to-do lists, leading to a lack of clear priorities and increased procrastination.

2. Misperception of task difficulty

   Research shows that we often overestimate how stressful, difficult, or unpleasant a task will be before we start it. Once we begin, our perception often shifts, and we find the task more manageable than anticipated.

3. Disconnection from the future self

   This phenomenon, also called temporal disjunction, occurs when individuals perceive their future selves as separate from their current identity. As a result, they may delay tasks because the consequences of inaction feel like they will affect "someone else" rather than their present self. This disconnect diminishes the urgency to act and can lead to postponing tasks that have long-term benefits or consequences.

The 4R's Framework: The Mental Shift

To change how we perceive tasks we're putting off, we can use the 4R's Framework:

1. Recognize

   Admit that you're procrastinating and forgive yourself. Remember, it's a behavioral issue, not a character flaw.

2. Reflect

   Ask yourself why you're delaying action. Examine your thoughts, feelings, and potential consequences of inaction.

3. Reframe

   Shift your perspective positively. Visualize successful completion and focus on what you want to achieve rather than what you're avoiding.

4. Re-apply

   Take action based on your new mindset. Break tasks into smaller, manageable steps. For example, if you're procrastinating on writing a report, break it down into outlining, drafting, and editing. Minimize distractions by turning off phone notifications and creating a dedicated workspace. Create a conducive environment for productivity by setting specific work hours and using time-blocking techniques.

Let’s save all of the excuses we tell ourselves and others.

You now know the real reasons behind why you procrastinate and how you can reframe your mindset so you can stop. 

Use the 4R’s framework to wrangle tomorrow and pull it into today. 

BUSINESS – Mental Alchemy: Turning Knowledge Into Gold

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through the comments of a YouTube video on starting a business and I stumbled upon a comment that stopped me in my tracks.

The comment read: “How can I start a business, I’m not good at anything.”

When I saw this, I thought about the psychological entropy that person must have been feeling to make such a statement. Everyone is good at something, many people just never figure out what that is.

As I continued to scroll through the comments, I saw several more commenters expressing the same sentiments.

“I don’t have any good ideas for a business.”

“I’m not an expert at anything.” 

I thought to myself, is anyone going to acknowledge the elephant in the room? 

Many believe you need a revolutionary idea or to be an expert to start a business. The truth? Business is about solving problems. 

The market provides the problems; your job is to identify and solve them.

This guide will help you turn your existing knowledge into a profitable offer. Here are the 2 key things you will have learned after reading this step-by-step guide on how to engage in mental alchemy: 

1. How to identify that golden solution (your offer) within 2 hours of market research. 

2. How to efficiently implement your fulfillment system in 10 days or less with only 3-4 hours of highly focused work per day. 

Don’t Try to Reinvent the Wheel…Just Roll with It

The first thing you should know is success leaves clues, so let's find them. 

Follow these steps to find that golden solution (your offer):

1. Identify Your Skills

   List your current skills. If you're stuck, move to step 2.

2. Explore High-Demand Skills

   Go to Udemy.com and look for courses with high enrollment and good ratings. This indicates market demand. See if any align with your skills.

3. Analyze Reviews

   For courses with 4+ stars and 100+ reviews, read those reviews! Note what people liked and what they felt was missing. This is your golden ticket for crafting a better offer. Below are 2 examples of course-takers offering a bit of critique.

4. Structure Your Offer

   Look at the course description and syllabus of a popular course in your field of knowledge. This gives you a structure to work with. 

Below are screenshots of the course description and lecture topics of a highly ranked herbal medicine course being offered on Udemy.

5. Use LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini)

   Use a LLM to help you name your offer and create a framework. Here is the prompt I entered into ChatGPT (feel free to customize it for yourself 😊):

Want to see the course development framework ChatGPT created for me using this prompt?

OF COURSE YOU DO!

Click here to see the customized framework for my new digital course on medicinal herbs. 

Are you back from checking out that development framework? Great, let's discuss.

No shade, but this Udemy course leaves much to be desired. 

There is absolutely no mention of how to safely use medicinal herbs with prescription medications nor are there any considerations for an individual’s current health issues. Both are extremely important in my professional opinion as a pharmacist. 

But yet and still, the course has 4.7 out of 5 stars and over 69,000 people who purchased the course.

Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

With that being said, find 2 hours of uninterrupted time so you can build a development framework for a digital asset you can monetize. 

Don’t limit yourself to just creating a digital course with this framework. You can create a series of newsletters or an e-book with this exact same framework. There’s even potential to create your own paid community on Skool.com or Whop.com using this framework. 

So, no excuses. And no procrastinating since we’ve already discussed how to overcome that. 

Get your digital asset created already!

Next week, we’ll pick up where we left off and do a deep dive on how you would market your new digital asset so you can start making money. 

If that interests you, and I know it does, be sure not to miss next week’s newsletter.

STORY TIME – Lessons from the Trenches: My DFY Disaster

Back in 2021 when I first started my marketing agency, I desperately wanted to prove myself. The trend at the time was a Done-For-You model, so that was my initial offer. 

I got my first clients by offering to completely take over their Facebook Ads and manage their social media. Once leads came in, I’d have a VA respond to DMs and book appointments. 

My offer was a $2,500 setup fee and a $1,500 monthly retainer. I know, I know…try not to laugh too hard.

To fulfill this, I was glued to Slack, responding to client requests and micromanaging contractors who became "inefficient" without constant oversight. 

Needless to say, I hated my life as an agency owner.

My breaking point came when a client called me upset that "things weren't happening fast enough." She had a small ad budget and it had only been three weeks. Anything I asked her to do, she delayed, citing, "I'm a single mom and I care for my sick dad."

I’ll never forget what she said to me on that call, “I hired you so I wouldn’t have to be bothered with any of this stuff!”

I realized she viewed me as an employee that could be run into the ground.

She wanted effortlessness, not efficiency.

I parted ways with her that day. A month later, I shut down my DFY offer. All of my clients were churning anyway.

What I learned: clients looking for a no-effort-on-my-part model simply aren’t worth the effort.

An ideal client wants efficiency through manageable systems, not effortlessness. DFY offers mostly attract clients seeking effortlessness.

This is why I switched to a build and release model that is appropriately priced. More on this in a future newsletter.

Some may argue the value of DFY offers. I say, "Argue with a therapist, not me." That’s who you’ll need after working with those clients.

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Hit that subscribe button and share this newsletter with someone who’s also on a journey of self-mastery and self-actualization as an entrepreneur. 

Stay Masterful,
Caroline