Productivity / Mindset – Stay focused, manage our time well, and build habits that keep our work moving forward without burnout. Stop kicking our own butts.
Health – Take care of our bodies and minds so we have the energy and clarity to create and perform at our best.
Value Creation – Develop unique, high-quality work that solves problems or delights our audience. Humanity needs us.
Value Delivery – Make sure our work reaches clients in a way that’s professional, seamless, and leaves them thrilled.
Sales – Learn how to confidently communicate our worth and close deals that pay us what we’re worth. Pricing, negotiation, honesty, love.
Marketing – Get the right people to notice and trust us, so they’re excited to hire or support us. Attention that’s useful.
Finance – Handle our money wisely so we can stay in business, grow, and create without financial stress.
These are based on the five parts of a business plus the two things that individuals also need. This means we can have one per day.
I have switched over to 100% meal replacement shakes and I might never switch back to food.
I’m writing this because i want to get all my thoughts in one place about it and i know that many great creators who read this want to be able to dedicate more of themselves to their creativity instead of house work and chewing interesting things.
I’m pumped about technology and still I’m a late adopter. I like things to work well and be effective for what I need.
Alcohol and food are more costly, so I might do them sometimes to have some fun with people.
The cost of food
here are some things i’ve noticed i can cut out…
✁ Mood fluctuations
✁ Cooking
✁ Cleaning
✁ Shopping
✁ Food waste
✁ Eating animal products
✁ Thinking about nutrition ( including counting calories, balancing macros )
✁ Making food choices
✁ Meal breaks
✁ Listening to cravings
✁ Energy spikes
✁ Diet regret
✁ Nearly all trash
If my family joined me in this journey, we could cut out…
✁ dishwasher (hand washing is easy)
✁ stove
✁ refrigerator
✁ airfryer
✁ microwave
✁ pantry
✁ pans, dishes, etc
Probably saving me about 90 min a day of time that I can put into stuff that’s more fulfilling than eating. I can drink a shake while I’m in a meeting. It would be kinda disrespectful to have a salad.
Probably reducing my depression and anxiety by 40% to 70% from where I was ( i have other tools that help me with a lot of dep+anx)
The cost of shakes
2000 calories per day is $53 / week for Huel Essential. I get a box of powder and mix it with water. I started with Soylent ($69 / week… nice) they had supply chain issues, so i switched to Huel.
*I like the taste of both for all day drinking. Soylent is more chemically tasting and huel is more chunky (like cereal milk)*.
Shakes cost me the short pleasure of chewing something interesting. My sense of smell is intense. I’m noticing my cravings and my temptation to destabilize my body system. Those cravings were probably always there and they go away about as fast as if I indulged.
The powder travels well, but if I don’t plan it out, i’ll be back to eating food – which i did during Christmas and Wildfire evacuations. Lack of sleep + no shakes leads me to eating a little yucky. I tried to drink a half a day worth of soylent before a flight and I was very disappointed! Felt dizzy and like i was going to puke for a few minutes.
The social cost is lower than I expected. Most of our family meals are asynchronous. When they happen, and I was eating food, I would eat faster than everyone else and watch them eat anyhow. People do want to talk about it a lot, that’s part of the reason I’m writing this.
The health
I’m trying to live a long life and an enjoyable life.
It seems to be healing my foot and eye things I’ve been dealing with for a long time. I am working to lose weight, so the calorie counting is really simple.
2025-01-31 my foot thing was with me for years. it was plantar warts. They’re all gone. anecdotal and coincidental maybe.
My major blood markers are better than before according to my doctor. I’ll probably get more tests done and improve my tracking of health.
As I mentioned, mental stability is better.
Two people asked me about jaw strength. My jaw still works for talking and making facial expressions. When i’ve eaten food, it still works for chewing. Maybe I’m gritting my teeth at night. Somehow my jaw hasn’t fallen off.
Mom asked about teeth. Saliva could be helpful maybe with teeth and digestion. I’ll go to the dentist soon and check that out.
I’ve lost about 10lbs. I attribute this just to the fact that I decided how many calories I needed per day to lose weight at a healthy pace. Then, I calculated how much of the shakes i would consume in a day. Then, I figured out how mix up that much for one day. I don’t have to schedule my meals or keep track. I can drink them any time I want, and when I am out of shake, I know I’ve eaten enough to lose weight, yet maintain health.
I picked Huel Essential because of the macro balance
Coffee and water. I try to drink one cup of water for every cup of Huel. A lot of pee, but keeps me feeling good. I poop less.
A probiotic is recommended, so i might start doing a 1/2 cup of raw sauerkraut every day.
2025-01-31 I’m going to switch to creatine, d & k, Omega, choline, and sauerkraut and see how that works with Huel
The logic
Shakes may not be the perfect food. I feel they are better than I was eating before nutritionally.
I was careful about my diet. Mostly eating lean meat, legumes, veggies and grains. Trying to avoid things that contain sugar and high glycemic index. or more than 12g of sat fat per day. Tried to avoid high sodium foods. I had high blood sugar (pre diabetic), blood pressure, and blood cholesterol at one point.
I would still have one or two days of wildness. So, i might have a bunch
Having rules is way easier for me than trying to have will power. I don’t want will power. I want to live long and well.
I am a little suspicious about this tack. My general doctor said it’s probably okay. Nobody’s really recommending it – not even the shake companies (probably to prevent liability). I’m going to keep monitoring stuff and see where it goes.
The major stated downsides to the nutrition of it seem to be
getting dependent on shakes (who cares?)
each individual has different needs, so it isn’t perfectly balanced ( am i still better off than I would be without it?)
Pretty great!
No-food-management saves me time and energy. Consistency and reduction of food waste saves me money. Mood stabilization and mindless consumption saves me energy and makes me a more dependable person.
I’ve done a lot of teaching juggling. Someone asked on facebook about teaching a group of 7yos. Here’s my answer.
The main focus with teaching is to reduce anxiety so that students can access their bodies. Make sure that everything they do is a success. You could teach a class with juggling knives, depending on how you teach it.
Many people try to teach by getting very cognitive and telling where to place feet and arm position and stuff. I find it’s way faster to show them what to do. Refine technique much later
If the group is small, give individual attention. If the group is big, don’t worry about them learning much. Make continuous activities – even obstacle courses – that keep it playful and they understand what you expect of them
I keep seeing subway and train videos where the other passengers seem intent on not paying ANY attention to what’s happening a few feet away😂 Is this a recent trend? I don’t remember it being so severe before 2010.What fuels it? It’s as though “if I give you my attention I’m losing something.” Thoughts?
Yeah, if I’m on a train and someone does a show for money, I can 1️⃣watch them and pay, 2️⃣watch them and feel guilty for not paying, 3️⃣or ignore them and do the thing I was planning to do.
At a party, paying attention is also paying. If an attendee feels they know what is enjoyable for them, why would they take the risk of doing something else. They might feel guilty if they don’t smile or clap,
so there’s an unsolicited transaction going on.
Even in a stage show, we as performers, have the responsibility to deliver big time. Audiences are taking a risk on us. They could easily go off into their own minds to their comfort zones and enjoy themselves a little bit. Let’s disturb them, and open the door to something better. So they can enjoy themselves a lot!
If you’re new to our group, follow these simple steps to become a member:
Click the “Join Our Facebook Group” button above.
Log in to your Facebook account.
Answer the membership questions to help us understand your expertise.
Wait for admin approval (usually within 24 hours).
Once approved, you’ll have full access to post and respond to gig opportunities.
How to Post a Gig
post a gig opportunity: the goal is to put in as much detail as you can so that people feel they can imagine their way through the work and they feel comforted and ready to contact the booker.
Join the Gig Exchange Group as described above.
Navigate to the “Create Post” section.
Provide detailed information about the gig, including:
Rate: $xxx/2hrs for each performer (for kids and adults)
Casting Deadline: Monday Dec 4, 10am
Roles Needed:
CLOSE UP MAGICIAN – Walking around the event and doing tricks for small groups of guests. Looking a little circus-y is a bonus.
TWO STILT WALKERS – Looking circus-y and having fun interacting with the guests.
To submit for this job, send an email to whatever@booker.com. Please send a photo and a few-line resume (just three to five career highlights). Also, let me know your break schedule for a gentle two-hour gig.
Creating a detailed casting breakdown helps performers understand the gig fully and ensures a smooth hiring process. It shows that we value their time and effort, fostering trust and professionalism.
Why Use Scot Nery Gig Exchange?
Our Gig Exchange Group is dedicated to connecting talented entertainers with exciting opportunities. Whether you’re a magician, stilt walker, or any other type of performer, our community provides a platform to find gigs that match your skills and interests. One person’s trash is another ones treasure. Dump unwanted gigs here.
By joining our group, you’ll benefit from:
Access to a wide range of gig opportunities
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Join us today and take your entertainment career to the next level!
To me, feelings are things that pop up and can go away just as fast.
Modes
Other things are longer lasting and stronger. They usually come about as a result of our effort – wallowing or affirming.
Depression, for example, in me can be the result of a chemical imbalance or of me trying to hold on to a narrative I don’t like. I’ve experienced a lot of it.
Feeling wheel edited
I’ve gotten good results from using this 6 feeling feeling wheel to identify my feelings. I’ve put stars on the things that I think are not usually feelings, but are usually closer to modes. Most modes can be escaped via a physiological state change and a mindset change.
How to…
We can have a state change using drugs, extreme temperatures, breathing, exercise and some other stuff.
We can have a mindset change with mental novelty (like watching a movie), meditating, journaling, talking to someone.
If I’ve got one of these, i usually feel in control of it.
Hosts / emcees are often obstaclized by trying to do the wrong stuff. The problem is that they…
are striving to make things go smoothly.
try to appear “professional”
mimic what they think they’ve seen other hosts do.
If the goal is to make the host look good, the best outcome will be the host will look not terrible. If the goal is to make the experience great for the audience, the host may be almost invisible.
In many situations, i will throw everything under the bus in order to maintain a good relationship with the audience. They need to trust me to lead them forward. If I tell them that the next thing coming up is awesome, they must be right along with me. When I tell them they had a good time, that is a ridiculous thing to tell people. They must 100% be psychically connected to me.
One of my trademark lines from Boobietrap was “This is what fun feels like!” It was true and I needed to say it so that people would recognize it. I could only say it once we were all completely connected and on the same page.
Hope is crucial if we want to make a change. If there’s hope that things can be better, there’s motivation to make the sacrifices necessary. Hope makes us want to invest.
Wishing is the opposite of hope. Wishes are a list of things that are impossible or things that only come from magic. Hopes are things that come from us doing something.
Once we blow out a candle on a cake, our wishing is done. We can check it off the list. When we hope for something, we are just beginning to look at how to make it possible.
Wishing comes from a scarcity mindset. The only way we can get what we want is by throwing a penny in a fountain, or breaking a turkey bone. We have nothing to work with. Hoping comes from abundance. We recognize the assets we already have. Eg: “we have this great team and this winning spirit. I think we can achieve everything we want!”
Hope comes from a gratitude inventory and desire. Wishes come from complaining and resigning.
Take action : listen to your daily speech. Anything you wish was different, turn it into hope, or skip it.
We can only do one thing at a time. The game is finding that important thing.
I have a bunch of people tell me the weird creative things they’re working on in the background. I ask them why. They say that it’s just a little thing that they’re doing because it’s creative and fun or exploratory.
The issue is, there’s no background project. If it’s taking up time, it’s taking up now.
I have this fantasy that if i stay up late doing something, it gives me extra hours. Logically, if I sleep instead, i can wake up rested and ready to pursue my main thing – my mission / my higher purpose. If i stay up, I miss out on the crucial work that i can do (sleep counts as work).
We keep coming back to finding a mission and sticking with it. Sometimes working on a bunch of creative projects is helpful to a mission. 99% of the time, there’s just one next thing to do.
Take Action: make a file for ideas. Write down all the ideas for side-quests and keep them there. don’t do them, just store the thoughts for later.
There’s a book : The Self-made Billionaire Effect. It talks about one of the superpowers of successful people is their ability to be motivated by the big picture; yet do the dumb, small work that’s in front of them.
This is a constant balancing act for all humans.
Make the mission big enough so that it matters.
Let the imagining go, so that we can complete the crucial next step.
In the book, they call this stage focus. It’s the ability to keep attention on the stuff that’s right here right now.
If we, as freelancers, don’t have stage focus, we get into dreaming. When the dreams don’t pay off, we get disappointed. When we get disappointed, we often start side projects / passion projects / procrastination type stuff.
Instead of trying to immediately call the president when we decide to be president, maybe we do some research to see how to be senator.
Stage focus is a great skill.
Working on the next thing is also different from working on busy work. Cleaning my desk can feel very rewarding and comfy when work feels daunting. Stage focus is humble work. It’s also courageous. There’s pressure. There’s effort. There’s discomfort.
We build the skill. Our ability to do stage focus is limitless.
Take Action : think of a simple thing that will have a big impact on your career. Write it down, complete it, put a check mark next to it.
