Blog

Reverted zig to version v0.13.0 to facilitate recompilation.

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I love Twitter. Every time I open the app or the site. I see someone crying about Elon Musk and Tesla and they are telling people to stick it to “them” by destroying those weird ass looking cars.

And if you’re reading this and you’re one of those “If I could key a Tesla I would!” weirdos. This message is for you…

You’re not a revolutionary. You’re a vandal with a saviour complex. But guess what? There’s a better way to fight the good fight.

A way that doesn’t involve committing misdemeanors or making Chad from accounting cry over his scratched Model 3.

It’s called sending daily emails…

Why Daily Emails Are the Activism You’ve Been Missing

They’re Legal (duh)

Unlike keying a Tesla, sending emails won’t get you arrested. Unless you’re spamming people with dick pics. Don’t do that.

They’re Fun and Effective

Want to fight fascism? Start a newsletter. Want to combat climate change? Write an email series. Want to stick it to Elon Musk? Build an audience and tell them why he sucks.

They’re Actually Helpful

Keying a Tesla just pisses people off. Sending emails? That can inspire, educate, and mobilise. It’s activism without the collateral damage.

They’re Not Dumb

Let’s face it. Keying a Tesla is the intellectual equivalent of eating glue. Sending emails? That’s strategic. That’s smart. That’s how you actually make a difference.

How to Get Started with Daily Emails (and Stop Being a Dumbass)

Pick a Cause

What do you care about? Climate change? Social justice? Exposing Elon Musk’s questionable life choices? Choose your battle.

Build Your List

Start with your friends, your family, and that one guy from high school who still owes you $20. Grow it from there.

Write Like You Give a Damn

No fluff. No filler. Just raw, unfiltered truth. Tell stories. Make people laugh. Make them think. Make them act.

Hit Send (That’s the hard part)

Every. Single. Day. Consistency is key. You want to change the world? Show up.

What You’re Doing Now:

Keying Teslas.

Being a petty vandal.

Accomplishing exactly nothing.

What You Could Be Doing:

Building an audience.

Spreading your message.

Actually making a difference.

If you’re serious about fighting the good fight, it’s time to put the keys down and pick up your keyboard.

You’re an artist after all.

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

P.S. If you’re still thinking about keying a Tesla, just… don’t. Send an email instead. Your future self will thank you.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

The Backsliding Series: Part 1
​(remixed from November, 2023)

“Leaps forward are often preceded by desperate, regressive steps backward.” – Don Beck & Christopher Cohen, Spiral Dynamics

The big trick in the game of inner development is mastering the part of you that doesn’t want to develop.
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This is critical, so stick with me:
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Have you ever noticed that whenever you make a big leap forwards…

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When you break through to a new level of performance
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When you sink into a consistent rhythm of discipline
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When more of your natural personality begins to open up
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When the work you've been doing actually starts to show real-world results
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…Basically, when what you’ve wanted for so long finally begins to happen…
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​…There’s almost always a strange, insidious little urge to backslide?​
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To take your foot off the gas and either slow down, stop, or fall into reverse?
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(really, hit reply and let me know if you’ve noticed this)
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Maybe you take a day or two off…
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Eat some not-so-healthy food…
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Tumble down the social media / video game / television rabbit hole…
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Slack on your habits…
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​…And generally just muck up the good work you’ve been doing.​
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Because hey, you’ve been doing good work.
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You’ve earned a bit of a muck-around.
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But then your day or two off turns into a week or two, and that big leap forwards shrinks to nothing more than a small step.
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It feels a bit like spending a cash windfall at the casino:
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It’s sort of fun (but also kind of hollow), and you leave wondering why on earth you let yourself lose all that capital.
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And so it goes:
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Grind, grind, grind, big leap forwards, backslide, regret, start grinding again…
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​Never quite making the continuous forward progress you know is needed to bring your vision to life.​
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Yeah, it sucks.
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But there’s also a very good reason for it.
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This weird little urge to backslide serves a critical purpose.
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And understanding that purpose is the key to finally making your temporary transformations become permanent.
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More on that tomorrow…
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• T
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  ​P.S. In related news, here’s:
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  ​Why You’re Working Hard But Getting Nowhere​

The Backsliding Series was first published in November, 2023.
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It was a huge hit, but many of our subscribers never got a chance to read it. So this week, we’re remixing and revisiting it with fresh eyes. Enjoy 🙂

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I’m on a live call with someone I respect in the coaching world.

Now I’m no coach at all, but having a coach in my corner changed my life.

The one thing I love about this live is the fact that the is exposing the whole coaching industry for what it is.

Complexity and the never ending circle of getting course after course without even starting is slowly getting dismantled. The thing is. You don’t need course after course or unlimited credentials to change your life or circumstances.

So when you sit down and look around. Every industry is slowly collapsing and going back to a simplistic model.

I’ve said it for years and now it’s all coming true.

The fancy shit is dying and simplicity is becoming the next cool thing.

And I’ve preached it for years…

Find a thing you love to do or an industry that has a problem.

Find the solution.

Create a 1 page website that offers some help or an entry level price for that solution.

Collect their email and then email them cool shit around that too with an offer here and there.

That is it and I can see every single market and industry shifting from the bloated complexity to simple and easy.

So whether you’re a coach, consultant or an artist of any sort. You need to dig deep and figure out how to offer your thing as simply as possible. Deliver it and give them a great experience.

That is all. Definitely not super sexy. It’s fairly boring on paper.

Now get to it.

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Platforms are killing themselves.

Which is great news for us old fashioned creatives.

I’m sure you all remember how cool MySpace was.

We could make our page our own. Code it all pretty and even have our favourite tunes playing when someone viewed our page.

And even though Tom did what anyone in that position would have done, which was sold it on for a massive payday and then live out his days pursuing his art which is photography.

But the downside to selling MySpace was that the investors who took it over decide we want to modernise it and add new features which nobody asked for and that’s when they started alienating their audiences.

Things became clunky and slow and the control you had was slowly carved away from you.

We moved on to other platforms like Facebook and Twitter as they started to crop up and they gave us what we were looking for. The freedom to do what we want and again, make that place our own.

Although as you can tell. The bigger and more popular those places got. The tighter the restrictions became and so we moved on to other platforms that gave us that some thing.

It’s a never ending cycle of freedom followed by restriction and you can see it happening again…

More features. More bloat. New platforms come out of the woodwork. Existing platforms start to copy one another and then they inevitably dial it back yet again. So you’re stuck chasing that same feeling again.

But you know what has stayed pretty much the same since the 1990s?

Email. Good old fashioned plain text email. There’s nothing super sexy about it. But if done right, you can make it stay fresh for decades.

And so this is just another reason start building your list and emailing your friends, fans and customers interesting stuff every day.

If you stay consistent and show up even when you don’t want to. They’ll stick around forever.

Platforms come, change and go but email lasts forever.

So get building and get writing, cause it’ll make you a better creative overall…

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

It’s no secret that I love email and respect the dudes who pioneered the way we do things today.

So I’m giving a little love to Matt Furey

He is without a doubt. The Grand Poobah of email marketing.

I got his email training years ago and decided to revise it again and just as I was digging through it he also dropped a banger of an email into my inbox like some weird woo-woo-email-synchronicity.

He doesn’t email as much as he did in the late 90s and early 2000s but he’s still around.

But this was what he sent me today and I would highly recommend getting on his list if you’re wanting to learn some great fitness, health and marketing nuggets from the man himself.

Here goes:

Subject: Gold Moon Rising

Yesterday gold hit a new all-time high, and early this morning the moon was bloody orange.



Coincidence?



YESSS-UH!



Anyway, I was out and about at 2 AM, taking in the sights above as my feet were planted on terra firma.



As I gazed upward I noted the cool spring Florida breeze. Owls hooted, deer grazed, rabbits and armadillos prowled and dogs howled as I observed this moment.



I thought about all the people who will not see or experience such wonders because they have an inflexible routine.



Emerson wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."



He was partly correct.



Being consistent with a daily routine works, at least, it works until you need a breakthrough. That's when you can benefit from changing things up a bit - or in some cases, a LOT.



A friend of mine, John, once said, "Consistency kills," in reference to how he became a champion collegiate track star. I looked at his big gut and smiled, "Indeed, it does. You haven't worked out in years."



He laughed.



A few days later John told me that he changed up his routine. He was back on track. He was going to get lean 'n mean again.



I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was gradually working up to the same routine he followed in college.



"That was 30 years and 75 pounds ago," I said. "That was before your knees went gimpy and your back and belly began to bulge."



"Well what do you suggest then, Mister Furey?"



"You can call me Master Furey, or Guru Furey, if you want an answer," I joked.



"Alright, Master Furey, what shall I do?"



"Well, being you need to rehab your knees and improve the health of your back and hips, I encourage you to practice Dao Zou every night, and the later the better. This practice will begin to unwind your mind and body. It will remove the knots and strengthen the weak links."



"Isn't Dao Zou that backwards walking regimen you created?" John asked.



"It's more than backwards, my friend. Anyone can turn around and move backwards, but that's low level training. It's more about HOW you move and how you breathe in reverse. There are a lot of different patterns I cover."



"Well, give me some suggestions. I'm all ears."



I proceeded to show John several different walking patterns and he followed my lead as best he could. Within a few minutes he was amazed, especially after he tapped various pressure points and energy centers while moving in reverse.



"This is unbelievable," he said. "I can really feel this in my glutes and my hips. Any my energy is off the charts."



"You ain't seen nuthin' yet. Wait till you go to sleep and you start having incredibly vivid dreams, and wait till you start recalling things from long, long ago, that you couldn't possibly remember.



I then showed John how the backwards routine in Dao Zou eventually leads to running and, if you dare, swimming (and writing) in reverse



"Ya know, back in the day when men weren't filled with estrogen, a fighter by the name of Gene Tunney knocked the holy hell out of Jack Dempsey in the heavyweight division, winning himself a world title. Tunney was in the most phenomenal shape of any heavyweight fighter ever seen before. And do you want to know what his secret was?"



"I think you just showed it to me."



"Part of it," I replied. "Just a part of it."



I told John to get started with the easy stuff I showed him, then added, "If you are consistent with it for a month, I'll show you more."



"I'm on it," John smiled. "Consistency kills, remember."



"Indeed. And so does inconsistency."



Don't be a fool stuck in the same ole - same ole routine. Change it up here and there. A bit of inconsistency leads to breakthroughs unimagined in daylight hours.



Matt Furey



P.S. If you're chomping at the bit for a change of pace, mentally and physically, go get my Dao Zou course NOW. It will shift your life into overdrive!

As you can see. Matt has such a fun style of writing too. I'm always loving what he puts out.

Stephen Walker

P.S. There's been some activity outside now that it's warming up...

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Hey, short and sweet one for you:
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If starting an online business feels overwhelming, and you’re struggling to learn the skills, platforms, and technology necessary to get your business off the ground…
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…Here’s a simple cure:
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​The fastest way to learn online business skills​
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And, if you want more…

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This clip comes from a longer 2-hour discussion on building modern businesses we held at last year’s retreat.
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​You can watch the full recording now, inside The Path…

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…But the price increases permanently at midnight tonight, so if you still want in, it’s now or never.
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I hope we see you inside.

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• T
  ​

P.S. We are holding a private, business-only AMA call for Path members this Saturday at 10 am EST.

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You’ll be able to ask me any question about your business, and get immediate, detailed feedback.

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(we do this every few weeks, so if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re not attending every single call you possibly can, you’re outta your mind)
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Again, the price increases permanently at midnight tonight…

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​So if you want in, now is the time.​

“Sensible people get paid for doing what they enjoy doing.” – Alan Watts

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​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 5-420 Erb St. W, Suite 433, Waterloo, ON N2L6K6

If you love an old outdated website with interesting information like I do…

Then www.milk.com

Will appeal to your nerd-y heart.

It takes you back to the days where websites were fun and you weren’t hunted down by those god damn cookies so the ad moguls can blast bullshit ads right into your eye sockets.

Granted these websites are not fancy.

But they are fun.

You get to see what the creator has gotten up to and where their personality shines.

And so this is where the attention economy is slowly shifting.

Going back old school. Going back to where stories were real and the people living them weren’t scared to share.

Everyone’s going on about web 3.0 but web 1.0 is making a massive comeback.

Go check out https://milk.com/experiments/

Dan is hilarious and the hours lost on that site will do wonders for you as a creative who needs to spice things up.

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Sometimes we need to squeeze those trendy bastards for all they’re worth…

But let’s talk about your addiction like the marketing junkie you are.

We all know that hot spicy rush when we see the next big thing.

We love that dopamine hit when we whip out our credit card for another course, plugin, or platform that promises to transform our business into a money ejaculating unicorn overnight.

(We’ve all been there googling “how to make money online” at 3am)

We all know the cycle. Buy the shiny thing. Get high on possibilities. Never implement. Feel shame. Swear off shiny things. See new shiny thing. Repeat until death or bankruptcy, whichever comes first.

The problem isn’t the shiny objects themselves. It’s the relationship with them that’s more toxic than if we were take our ex and drop them in a vat of radioactive gunk.

Now stay with me for a second cause this might be a novel idea…

…what if those gleaming, promise filled objects aren’t inherently evil?

What if they’re just lemons waiting to be squeezed into something refreshing?

Let’s use good ol’ marketing as an example:

The fundamentals of marketing are still the same blunt instruments they’ve always been. They’re the rusty hammers and bent nails that have built empires for centuries.

List building. Copywriting. Offers that don’t suck. Customer service that makes people feel less like numbers and more like humans.

These basics aren’t sexy. They’re the marketing equivalent of missionary position. They work, but nobody’s making TikToks about them.

But ignoring the new shit completely? That’s just as stupid as buying every shiny object that crosses your path.

Platforms evolve. Algorithms shift. Attention migrates. (Insert 2020 as an example)

But if you look at the “master” and imho, the real fucking wizards of this game. They don’t ignore the shiny. They don’t worship it either.

That’s the real trick.

They sample it. They test it. They implement the parts that enhance those boring, effective basics. They squeeze the goddamn lemons and make refreshing lemonade.

And as an example cause you know what I feel about all of this A.I. bs:

…go ahead, buy that course on the latest A.I. copywriting tool or that new funnel builder everyone’s raving about.

But and this is a big BUT…

For the love of all things profitable, use it. Test it against those unsexy basics. See if it amplifies what already works.

The hardest part isn’t finding new things to try. It’s sticking with what’s proven while selectively experimenting with the new.

It’s making that shiny object lemonade. One part trendy innovation, two parts time tested fundamentals, stirred with the sweat of actual implementation. Then you can sit down. Sip it. Savour it. And for once in your life, finish the whole damn glass before reaching for another one.

Which is also why I’m going back through this gem right here. Cause it’s some of the best fundamentals of direct response you’ll ever get.

Yeah it’s boring and not so sexy but it’s the type of thing that works. Even if on paper it may bore you to tears.

Stephen Walker.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

The internet’s drowning in a septic tank of A.I. generated horseshit.

Perfectly formatted. Perfectly vacuous. Reading it is like licking the inside of a corporate bathroom’s hand dryer.

The words look like words, sure. The sentences have subjects and predicates and all that grammatical foreplay, but they’re dead eyed mannequins wearing human skin suits. No pulse. No soul. Just the robot equivalent of a smile painted on a department store dummy whose eyes follow you around the abandoned mall.

You’ve felt it, right? That creeping sensation when you’re reading something that sounds like it was written by a chorus of marketing graduates being slowly digested in the belly of a silicon beast.

The way your eyes glaze over, your brain cells committing suicide one by one rather than process another “According to experts” or “In today’s fast-paced world.”

People are starving for words with fingerprints on them, you know? Actual human words.

Content that bleeds when you cut it. Sentences assembled by someone who occasionally stares into their refrigerator at midnight contemplating the existential dread of expired yogurt.

Write like you’ve got nightmares and dreams and that weird memory of your uncle’s basement that smells like wet cigarettes and regret.

Write like your keyboard is connected directly to the meat computer behind your eyeballs, not some cloud based suggestion engine that’s been fed a diet of LinkedIn motivational posts and corporate style guides.

(Did I tell you I don’t like LinkedIn before?)

Your readers can tell the difference. They might not say it, but they feel it in their gut.

That subtle wrongness when words have been sanitised of all humanity, like a hotel room that’s too clean and you just know someone died there.

So spill your guts onto the page. Let your sentences have nervous breakdowns. Occasionally go off on tangents about how pigeons might be judging your life choices. Be weird. Be human. Be the kind of writer that A.I. can only poorly imitate, like a child wearing their parent’s clothes and pretending to go to work.

At the end of the day, we’re all just electrified meat puppets trying to connect through strings of symbols before the universe pulls the plug and we all cease to exist. Might as well make those symbols taste like something other than corporate approved flavour packets.

Be your weird self. Sneak it into your writing and watch people look for more.

Stephen Walker

https://stphnwlkr.com/theleague

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom