Finding my Ikigai and becoming my own Sensei
Ten years ago, I started a digital agency called Jackalope Media at 22 years old. With no formal education, I’d gotten pretty far without a Sensei. I had turned it into a full-time job and even acquired an investor which helped me relocate from my parents’ basement to Austin, TX with a brick and mortar location.
But we were still struggling to close 5-figure deals.
Even if I had gone to college, there wasn’t a curriculum for running a digital agency. A childhood mentor of mine had started a video production agency, but I decided to focus on websites and apps. This was uncharted territory for me.
I had no mentors who had done exactly what I wanted to do.
It wasn’t until I found a company called Ugurus that sold courses on how to sell high-ticket websites, that we were able to land our first $7.5k website.
It wasn’t until 5 years later that we finally broke the $20k plateau.
What was the secret?
Once again, it was largely due to a mentorship. I found a company called The Futur, and started hiring a mentor named Chris Do– a master sensei of agency sales.
As much as I enjoyed doing agency work, I realized that I’d actually rather do what he was doing, and help educate people on these rare skills that aren’t taught in school.
But I quickly realized that Chris had done it better than I could have done it. So what was the point? I might as well just join him on his mission to help a billion people get paid to do what they love.
I spent years in The Futur Pro Group, and Chris helped me find my Ikigai. Which was to design and build educational software.
Rubber Ducking
After being mentored by Chris for years, I started to find that I needed him less and less. Shouldn’t that be the ultimate goal of a true sensei?
After you’ve spent enough time learning to think like them, you find that you don’t have to waste their precious time. Every time you have a question, you can begin to hear their voice in the back of your head.
Tim Ferriss and Derek Sivers confirmed this for me in their most recent podcast episode [1:57–2:05]:
1:57, Tim and Derek talk about their approach to mentorships
According to Derek Sivers, your mentors don’t even need to know you exist.
You can simply absorb their mindsets, write to them, and guess what they would say without even talking to them.
This reminds me of Rubber Ducking– which is a method for solving problems and debugging code that involves… yep you guessed it. A rubber duck.
The rubber duck knows all.
All you have to do is break down your problem and ask it. This allows you to tap into its infinite wisdom. You become the highest version of yourself and you’ll realize that you knew the answer all along. Verbalizing your thought process can help you come to an “aha” moment.
Sensei AI– Why now?
There are two main components to getting what you want in life.
- Goal setting
- Accountability
If rubber ducking works so well, then why build Sensei AI? Why not just sell rubber ducks?
The main component missing from rubber ducking is accountability.
Your rubber ducks are only good at listening. They aren’t going to reach out to you, and hold you accountable.
The same goes for ChatGPT. Even if you tell it where you want to go– it’s not going to actively hold you accountable.
Why set goals?
- 83% of the population do not have goals
- The 14% of people who have goals are 10x more successful than those without goals.
- The 3% with written goals are 3x more successful than the 14%.
Why find an accountability partner?
- The American Society of Training and Development found that people are 65% more likely to meet a goal after committing to another person.
- Their chances of success increase to 95% when they build in ongoing meetings with their partners to check in on their progress.
If this math checks out, then writing down your goals, and having an accountability partner with ongoing progress updates would place you within the top 1% of people who don’t.
Simply put:
Using Sensei AI, you will join the elite, at whatever you wish to accomplish.
Scratching My Own Itch
This is my number one rule of product creation, which I talked about in Steal My App, I Dare You back in 2015.
When you run your own business, you don’t usually have anyone to hold you accountable to your goals. This is where a Sensei comes in handy.
I built this product first and foremost, so that I can use it to solve my own problems.
Fear Itself
Then in the weeks leading up to launching Sensei AI, I found that I wasn’t even using it myself. Why was that?
After some deep introspection, I realized that I was afraid.
Afraid of failure.
Afraid of success.
The only thing we have to fear is… fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
So the bigger question becomes–
Do you really want to achieve your goal? Or would you rather just fantasize about it?
If you’re ready to make your dreams a reality, then commit to it. Then leave it to Sensei AI to hold you accountable.
Sign up for a one-week free trial of Sensei AI here.
There’s a 30-day money back guarantee, so what do you have to lose? Nothing.
What do you have to gain? Everything.
