When you’re starting to offer advisory engagements to clients and prospects, it’s very common to get nervous.

Say you’re talking with a prospect and you can tell that they need help beyond writing. In fact, you can see that it doesn’t yet make sense to go right into a writing project — mainly because they need to make some other decisions first.

But you’re nervous ... because you’re not sure how to think about what they’re telling you.

Or you’re not sure how to explain that they need to do something else first before creating that marketing asset.

Here’s what I do to help me get better clarity quickly and calm my nerves. It’s a bit of a decision tree or decision flow chart. A powerful heuristic, if you will.

I ask myself the following questions:

1. Does it sound like they need help coming up with the right solution or intervention? In other words, the right solution is not well defined yet. And you can’t really move forward with anything until they figure that out (hopefully with your help).
2. Do they have the right intervention BUT need help improving how they’ll produce that intervention? For example, they have the right idea for how to solve the problem. But as you listen to them talk about it, you realize the topic, theme, or approach they want to take is flawed.
3. Do they have the right intervention AND the right approach ... but they need help bringing that intervention to life? For example, they want to interview 15 subject matter experts, which is way too many. Or they want to do too much too quickly.

Why are these internal questions valuable? They’re valuable because they can help you categorize the exact type of need the prospect has AND how you’ll steer the conversation and how you’ll offer to help them.

And if you can determine this quickly and efficiently during that prospect conversation, you’ll have more mental and creative bandwidth to listen more attentively to what they’re saying AND end the conversation by stating your case confidently.

So give this heuristic tool a try next time you go into a prospect or client conversation where you notice that they may need help beyond just writing.

Life can often feel like a never-ending hustle — especially when you feel like you’re working harder than ever but getting poorer results.

Deadlines loom. Responsibilities pile up. And the bills keep coming.

It’s so easy to get swept up in the daily grind and feel like you’re constantly in the middle of a storm that just won’t let up.

Before you know it, the love you once had for your work starts to dim. And frustration and burnout take hold ... leaving you with a persistent feeling that you're merely going through the motions.

Sound familiar?

If so, I think you’ll really appreciate this episode. My guest today is my mentor, teacher, and good friend Peleg Top.

I’ve known Peleg for 14 years. He’s had a huge influence on my life and my business. And he’s the person who encouraged me many years ago to become a coach. I’ve learned a ton from him over the years, and much of that inevitably seeps into the work I do with my own clients.

I wanted to bring Peleg on because what I’ve been seeing in our business over the past year troubles me.

I’m seeing a level of frustration, burnout, doubt, fear, and uncertainty among creative professionals that I haven’t seen in a very long time. So many solo creative professionals are feeling rudderless and uninspired.

They’re tired and deeply in burnout territory. They want to change. And they’re trying their best to improve their situation, reinvent themselves, and create something new. But they feel plagued with a lack of clarity, fear, and self-doubt. 

Peleg believes that these symptoms are a clear sign that your inner muse is inaccessible. It’s locked up in a prison cell made of routine, stress, and self-doubt. And in order to break through and create the change we want, we must unleash this inner muse so we can tap into our core creative potential.

I couldn’t agree more.

In this conversation, we get right into this. We explain what this inner muse is all about. And how we can start embracing it to open up pathways to new ideas, emotional healing, and a profound sense of fulfillment—both in our professional and personal lives.

An Invitation

One more thing. A few months ago, Peleg and I felt called to do something about the challenges we’re seeing among creative professionals. We wanted to do something more profound and life-changing than a podcast episode.

Don’t get me wrong. You’ll get a lot out of listening to this conversation. But we’ve also decided to co-lead a retreat this September in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And it’s something I’m super-excited about.

We’re calling it the Unleash Your Inner Muse retreat.

This is a 5-day event where we'll work together to help you rediscover and nurture your creative spirit, unlock your full creative potential and craft a compelling vision for your personal and professional life.

You'll reconnect with a profound joy and exhilarating freedom that will make you wonder how you ever lost touch with this divine spark within.

And by the end of our journey together, you'll walk away with:

• Practical tools to reignite your creativity

• A renewed sense of motivation and direction

• A process that nourishes your authentic self and reconnects you to a creative energy you haven't felt in years

If what we share in this episode resonates with you, I invite you to listen to the end, where we talk a bit about that event. I’m also including a link with all the details on the show notes page for this episode. Or you can go straight there by visiting www.unleashyourinnermuse.com.

In this transformative episode, I discuss the importance of setting boundaries and being selective with opportunities through practical tools and methodologies. Borrowing from Greg McKeown's book, *Essentialism*, I introduce two powerful concepts: the 90% Rule and the Extreme Criteria Exercise. These tools are designed to help you master the art of saying no, enabling you to focus on what truly matters in both your personal and professional life.