Everything I write feels wrong.
You know what I mean?
I want to talk about why I teach the way I teach.
Why I share the things that run through my head to teach valuable lessons, because people can more easily absorb knowledge when they feel understood and connected to that knowledge than when they're instructed.
It's easier to learn from a parable of someone who thinks like you than from a textbook written by an academic, who doesn't know how it feels to apply that knowledge in the real world. Right?
But that feels both immensely important and incredibly shallow.
I want to tell you that the price of Solo School is going up because I have big plans to create more equitable work for ND folx within our space AND to bring in even more supports for everyone in there. It's happening. The price goes up December 1, everything is already in motion.
And while I think that putting money into the hands of good people and doing this work is critically important, I also don't think that "buy now" is the message I want to be shouting from the rooftops.
My landlord might disagree...
And really, I think this is the work.
Today's lecture in the certification program was on Intersectionality. Yeah, I scheduled that one well, right? Way to think ahead to other current events!
🤦♀️
In this lecture, we discussed the 100+ possible supports people can benefit from and the barriers they can experience in accessing support.
We talked about how those things interact and intersect with each other. How they overlap, and sometimes even compete within the same person for opposing supports. Dyslexics with auditory processing disorder, I see you. Hyperlexics with arthritis, I know books are hard now. AuDHDers, I see you needing structure AND chaos! These conflicts are real.
There were TWO primary takeaways from this lecture:
- You can't be 100% accessible, all of the time, for everyone, and trying to do so is a way to ensure you're not truly accessible for anyone.
- The way needs, supports, barriers, and even moments in time overlap with each other within people, communities, and even systems impact how they function and how they grow.
That's it. That's the work of this moment in time, wherever you are in the world and whatever the "big thing" is in this moment.
This is the quiet moment where we pause and reflect and look at how these things intersect and overlap, how they play with each other, how they fight amongst themselves, how they conflict and compliment.
I probably could have written a perfectly poetic piece about the way I teach being the right thing for this moment in time, and leading to the price increase announcement, and last week that would have been perfect.
This week, it is in conflict with what I feel I need to say. Who I feel I need to be. The space I need to hold. To pull back, assess, re-evaluate, and prepare. It compliments some of the needs perfectly while being completely at odds with others.
At the end of the lecture, I told the students that all these things are about compromise. You have to choose.
We don't want to choose, we want to be for everyone (it's one of the reasons you won't niche!), we want to be everything, we want to try just a little bit of all possibilities and we think that maybe, just maybe, if we're enough of enough things that we can finally be, well, enough.
But sometimes, upholding your core values means compromising something else. Sometimes supporting people who really need it means not being able to support those who need something in direct opposition a little bit less. Sometimes, you have to choose the captions for the auditory processing people even if it isn't easy for the people with dyslexia, because not choosing the captions is in fact also a choice.
So this newsletter can't be all about promo and big moves and next steps while also being about this moment in time, because the space those things need conflict with each other.
And that's okay.
In the end, I think the thing I needed to write came out anyway.
- Cheryl
❤️ We all need a village.
Last week, I went through something hard in my business. I had to make a decision, and take a difficult action.
And I had Paula to help me regulate through movement and stay in my body so the emotions didn't take over completely.
I had Deana to help me find the words and communicate as best I could, and hold my hand before and after.
I had Theresa to help me get through the difficult parts of the task and navigate the emotions afterward.
Amy supported me, and would have given her design wisdom if it were needed.
Courtney would have helped me assess financial resources, if I'd needed it.
I didn't have to go through any of this alone.
I had an entire community. A village of experts to help me and propel me through the hardest parts. To remind me to eat food. To send me memes.
My favourite part of this village is that it's not just mine.
It's for all of you.
Anyone reading this right now can come join Solo School today, and meet with Theresa tomorrow afternoon.
Or chat with Courtney about their bookkeeping on Thursday.
They can get Deana's help tomorrow morning drafting a difficult email to that family member, contractor, or person in your life that's about to get a difficult message. (Opting out of upcoming holidays, anyone?)
They can see the regulating exercises Paula has dropped in the community chat so they can feel more grounded and safe.
They can have Amy put her eyes on their Black Friday bundle graphics next week so they actually convert and drive engagement.
They can have me talk them through the strategic pieces and get things moving in the right direction. Or just to cry with, honestly.
They can use our AI tools to get an ADHD coach buddy in their pocket.
They can take a course on copy and in less than an hour, have better tools than half the copywriters on Fiverr.
They can drop into the sales workshop replay and have a new script that feels good and actually works before their sales call tomorrow.
This is what we've built. A whole village of support and care and resources, instantly accessible on an app in your pocket.
That's what the world needs right now.
We need our villages. We need our communities of care and our people rallying together in support of one another.
On December 1, the investment to participate in Solo School is going up.
In part to reflect the massive value of this space (I've seen less in $25k/year+ masterminds, to be honest) and in part because I want to hire more incredible ND folx to support our own. To build even more resources. To get our community room open 8 hours a day with an expert in there for every minute of it, supporting you on different topics. This is the goal.
To do that, the price on December 1 will be going up to just under $5k/year.
It's fair, honestly. There are over 12 hours per week of live coaching in there plus 2 dozen courses, and that's before we get to the 6 hours per week we're adding next year that's already confirmed.
So from now UNTIL December 1, if you want to be radically supported in a neurodivergent-exclusive business support program and lock in the current rate (monthly or annual, doesn't matter), I invite you to join us.
🐿️ Squirrel Squad - Facebook Group Updates
We've had some super cool members' only offers lately, and a lot of threads about people starting new things.
I am super behind on stuff in there, so I'm looking for Volunteer Moderators!
💯 Days Without Deadlines
We're basically at 100 days now. I'm done with deadlines and never going back. I don't even publicly announce plans anymore, and I'm probably not setting workshop dates or live events much going forward, either.
That's kind of the last piece. The live stuff. Specifically the live stuff that requires prep.
Its entirely the opposite energy of total flow, whether that flow is creating something to be shared asynchronously or showing up and sharing in the moment.
So that is my Q1 project. I'm done with deadlines, how can I fix my calendar, too?
💃 Fun With Friends
This is a new section where I share things that some of my business pals are up to, sharing, promoting, or creating each week.
Note that I haven't purchased these things (yet, some of them I will be) but I'm also not getting kickbacks from these hosts. They're people I follow, and whose work I admire, and I'm sharing their upcoming events with you.
I only share the ones I am personally interested in.
There are probably more things happening soon, but frankly it's 7pm and I'm hungry so I can only really focus on this one:
I'm LIVE in Portland on December 8 & 9 with Dusti Arab and Veronica Yanhs at Reinvent(ed) LIVE! I'll be hosting exclusive masterminding sessions on day two, and there are still a small number of those tickets available. Details here.
Are we friends? Are you doing something cool? Hit reply and let me know, I might feature it here!
💪 Business adaptation of the week
Elgato Streamdeck is actually really helping this week. I programmed it to do things like, open my group coaching calls when I click a button, open Canva when I click a button, display my YouTube subscriber count, play my LoFi playlist, or even launch some of my games.
Having these things at a push-button is one of the ways I'm accepting who I am. Someone who is always rolling into meetings literally on the dot, where the extra 90 seconds of navigating through pages and logins to find where I needed to be was making me late.
No more! It logs me in, starts me up, and gets my sessions going in a tap.
Love that for me.
🎁 My favourite things this week
That dude who lives in my house with me (it's a joke, relax) was at work in another town today and stopped in this cute yarn store he's kept mentioning to me. He spent an hour in there, maybe more. Called me and asked questions. Talked to the staff. Sent photos. Picked me up not only some beautiful yarn for upcoming projects, but the exact crochet hooks I had on my holiday wishlist. Just because it's Tuesday, and he wanted to.
I'd say those are my favourite things right now, but to be honest, I think the dude who went to all of that effort might be the favourite. The hooks are second though. 💯
🐲 Hobby Hoarder Updates
Secret project announcement coming. Shhhh ;)
📚 What I'm reading
I am actually paralyzed in indecision because I have too many books I want to read. A stack of 8 I was carrying around with me everywhere as my "to be read" pile has now migrated to a shelf, my kindle is with me, and I have 6 on my nightstand, plus 50+ in my wishlist.
Time for me to start 10 pages a day again to make sure I catch up!
Want to follow my reading? Check me out on StoryGraph, the minority-owned GoodReads competitor I love!
