Today I talked to a client about social media.

I am helping him out for free, donating a couple of sessions, and he wants to use his professional expertise to repay me.

“We are YouTube-certified, Tiktok-certified, and an official Instagram partner, so I could teach you some tricks to get clicks and likes and eyeballs”, he told me.

Cool offer, for sure.

So I thought about it for a moment and then told him I appreciated the gesture, but that I was not really interested, at least for now.

It’s not that I don’t respect expert advice; it’s more that I don’t want to conform.

Not to others.

Not to systems.

Not to rules.

I feel no joy in feeding an algorithm that will change anyway, and I have a deep sense, a deep drive, to just do it however I want to do it.

I am in it for the long run.

Shortcuts don’t mean shit to me, honestly, and I have really learned to appreciate the slow and steady pace of solid growth, and I totally embrace the creation of my own professional presence.

“I don’t want to fit into the system”, I told him, “I want the system to eventually fit around me.”

And I really, really feel that.

I have been coaching for 5 or 6 years now (maybe unofficially 7, who is counting), and much of the present excitement comes from creating my own rules, my own style, my own voice, my own quirks.

Sometimes I get inspired by other coaches or creatives and their ideas, but most of the time I have a total disrespect for following a system.

The coaching world is FULL of no-brainers and clichés, and I am not prepared to accept them because everybody does.

After more than 50 years of roaming the earth and exploring my own mind, after three previous careers that were honestly very fulfilling, I have found something that I can totally own.

This is next-level vocation shit.

And I am not willing to go for less.

So I will not do elevator pitches, I will not ‘describe my way of coaching in twenty words’, and I will not cuddle up to any present system or school.

I just don’t like the idea of having to adhere to a specific set of rules or terms, because for me, this gig is totally fluid and creative and alive, and I want to do whatever the fuck I want.

Stepping on a moving train would probably be the faster route, but I don’t care.

I want to build my own train and move it inch by inch.

Eventually, it will pick up speed, and I can already feel the excitement.

I am a creator and an inventor, and I will only do it my way.

I truly hope you have something in your life like that.

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(Photo by @roland_loesslein, for Unsplash)