[#017] My First Billion: The Week You Don't See Coming

There's a version of this journey that looks like big announcements every week.

New launches. Massive wins. Clean, linear progress.

This wasn't that week.

And honestly, I think this week was more important because of it.

We kicked off Monday with me making a call I didn't expect to make…

I rescheduled my regular sync with our Co-Founder to protect time for asset building.

That's a decision I wouldn't have made a year ago.

A year ago, I would've kept the meeting and squeezed the asset work into leftover time, which means it wouldn't have gotten done right.

But this week was about building.
Copy. Messaging. Funnels.

All the behind-the-scenes infrastructure for our upcoming Founder Freedom Workshop…

Built for coaches doing 30K to 100K+ per month, who are ready to stop being the bottleneck in their own business.

We had a target to get ads live Tuesday.
That didn't happen.

The full build wasn't finalized until the end of the week.

And even then, the new date we considered had to shift because a client event lands in the same window.

So we pushed it. Again.

I'm documenting this because there's a lie this journey can tell if I'm not careful…

That everything moves on schedule.

It doesn't.
At least not mine.

And I'm learning to be okay with that.

The fly-in hit different this week.

Thursday, we had 15 clients fly in for a full-day deep dive. No slides. No itinerary.
Pure hot seat coaching from 10am to 5:30pm.

Here’s what was interesting, but not surprising…

Most of the questions that came up on the surface looked tactical.

But the deeper we went, the clearer it became that the real work wasn't about strategy.

It was internal. Spiritual. We went deep on that, and honestly, the Holy Spirit showed up in that room in a way I wasn't expecting.

It was heavy. Good heavy.

Those are the days that remind me why I do this.

A few other things that happened this week:

Our event venue for the upcoming client-only bootcamp nearly doubled their rate… three weeks out.

That's crazy to find out on a tight timeline.

But we went back to a hotel we'd used before, it was available…

The rate came in lower, and because of the setup we actually save on catering too.

What looked like a problem turned into a better situation. I've stopped being surprised when that happens.

We also pushed back the One To Many Selling Summit, a paid workshop I'm building with my business partner, Adrian.

More time to get the assets right.
I’d rather do it right than rush.
I'm at peace with it.

On the personal side:

Celebrated my brotha and shooter, Kev’s, birthday Monday night over at our favorite Indian spot, Tabla.

Good people deserve to be celebrated.

Me and Vanessa kept our weekly sync going, we ended up catching Crime 101 in the middle of the day.

Practically had the theater to ourselves.
That kind of afternoon doesn't happen by accident; it happens because you protect it.

Took the boys to boxing (we’re about to go for our Friday session after I’m done with this newsletter).

Got my training sessions in with my health coach. Started prepping for my upcoming teaching series at church.

And knocked out the paperwork for my 12-year-old's school trips, Spain and Washington D.C. Passports, forms, all of it.

Life doesn't pause for the build. You just learn to carry both.

What I'm sitting with this week:

I went to God in prayer about the asset building.

Straight up asked…

Am I in alignment here, or am I just busy?

There's a difference between productive motion and just motion. I needed to check in on that.

I think that's a question every builder needs to ask themselves regularly.

Especially when the calendar is full and the to-do list keeps growing.
Busy isn't the goal. Alignment is.

So ask yourself:

"Am I in asset-building season right now, or does it feel more like execution mode?"

Talk Soon,
— Marquel