The problem was that this wasn't burnout. I've dealt with that before. Even when it doesn't feel this way, burnout is predictable. It's fixable. Whatever I was experiencing was something else -- something more empty. I'd become completely apathetic to my work, which is not what you want to feel when someone is paying you $$$$ to use your brain.

I spent nearly a year soul-searching and doing those pesky mental health things like "healing" and "getting to know yourself" -- blech! (Joke.)

And that lead to what I now lovingly refer to as the ego death of my business. 

Owning a business, being a freelancer, working for yourself -- whatever you choose to call it, the entire point is to be self-directed.

So what was up with all these weird boxes I kept building for myself? What was I trying to prove? Who was I trying to impress?

I decided that it's time to impress myself.

If I hate traditional marketing, can I sell without making my audience feel like shit? If I hate fluffy, predictable content, can I share my ideas more creatively? If I hate committing myself to one type of work, can I earn money doing whatever I want?

If I hate the cookie-cutter approach to business, can I bake my own messy, lumpy batch?

I knew I couldn't go back to purely systems work. My retainer clients had been throwing a bunch of random projects at me, from branding to course development, and I was having too much fun to turn my back on the variety.

But, no matter how I parsed it out in my mind, I couldn't find a way to simplify my skill set into an IG bio elevator pitch. Am I a no-code expert? Am I a copywriter? Am I a business strategist? How do you explain that the answer is, "Yes, and..."?

"I'm tired of this, Grandpa!"

"We live in a society."

Wait, what was I talking about again?

The TL;DR of this whole thing is that I've decided, essentially, to do whatever I want for now. This is a playground, a testing of the waters, an experiment to see if I can make a living doing whatever is calling my name at a given moment. 

It's where I write and share resources about business, life, and exploring your identity. And instead of niching down by what I do or who I serve, I'm choosing to niche by how I work. That is, falling wherever my whims take me. 

There are some constants you can expect, though, including these three principles:

atomicity

Instead of huge, complex, all-encompassing systems that assume how your life or business should operate, I'm working to focus on small building blocks that act as a choose-your-own adventure for developing hyper-personalized work and play.

accessibility

I believe that information should be free. My goal is to price with that in mind, with curated information being free and all other resources (e.g, tools, roadmaps, etc) are accessible in price, form, and function. No more creating solutions that require "pre-requisites". 

adventure

My goal isn't to think outside the box. It's to ditch the box entirely. This means I will follow each rabbit hole as I find it, but it also means that I'm exploring new ways to be and work online. I'm even planning to start a webring renaissance, if that gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.