📘🎮 The first thing I did after quitting The Dad

That feeling when you make a big life change

The first few months of The Dad were INSANE. The Dad team has always been scrappy (still is). But in those early days it was especially so. We were creating content, shooting videos, creating marketing plans, managing budgets, building community, pitching branded content to potential clients, etc etc.

Every morning I would wake up as early as I could handle, usually around 6am, stumble downstairs, put on some loud music, and set a timer. As a challenge to myself, I’d see how many emails I could reply to in an hour.

It was all I could do to keep things moving at the necessary pace and keep from being buried.

These past few weeks since quitting The Dad have been just like that. And I’m working from the same room I was working in 5 years ago.

So the first thing I did after quitting The Dad was to change my home office aesthetic. I moved my desk clockwise 90 degrees and painted the walls dark gray. I needed my surroundings to tell my brain, “You’re working on a new thing now.”

It’s easy to get into a rut without even knowing it. Especially after 5 years. Especially if you work from home. Even if you still LOVE the work, you can lose some spark.

I looooove working from home. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. But when you get a new job, you go into the new office, meet new people. You’re a little nervous, hungry to prove yourself.

If you work from home, you start the new job from the same spot where you worked your last day in the old job.

But even the smallest change of scenery can mimic that feeling of a new office. Buy yourself a new monitor. Get a new desk chair. Work from a different room. Rent an AirBnB cabin in the woods for your first week.

Have you had a big life change recently, good or bad? Try changing your environment to go with it. Get a crazy new haircut. Buy a new favorite shirt. Get a new puppy. (Send me pics of that puppy.) Tell your brain that something exciting is happening.

Big changes are life magic.

My new thing drops next week.