Climbing new mountains (and lessons learned along the way)

Friends! Readers! Curious humans!

How are y’all doing?

It’s been a few months since my last post, and a lot has happened.

We visited family and friends in London for a couple weeks in September, and then just hosted my dad and stepmom in Portugal. September and October really flew by with the travel, hosting, socializing, and parenting. We are tired, but with full hearts and a lot of memories we’ll cherish for years to come.

Our baby girl is nearly a year and a half old, and watching her learn, grow, and develop is such a joy. It was especially nice seeing her play with her two older cousins in London, and getting some face time with the grandparents, and I feel like she’s developed so much recently. Every day is a new word (today’s was umbrella 🥹).

We’ve also been settling into our new Lisbon home since March. After nearly a year-long delay, and too many temporary moves to count, it feels great to be settled in one place.

Alongside all of that on the home front, a big shift has also been happening in our work.

As I shared in my last newsletter, we’ve been exploring a new direction this year. After reflecting on the business turning five earlier this year, Claire and I both felt we wanted to switch things up, driven by a desire to have a deeper personal relationship with our clients, make a bigger impact for individuals, and create real transformation.

This summer was an active one on the work front as we ran the first cohort The Inner Operating System. We put everything we had into creating the most transformational experience we could provide to our students, and it paid off.

Here’s one reflection that really stuck with me, from a student named Kyle:

It’s not putting it mildly to say that they way you pulled all this together, the manner in which it was presented, the community you created… it changed my life for the positive more than any other intervention in my life. I was thinking the other day that I fully expect to look back 20 years from now and reflect on the positive impact this course had on my life.

Feedback like this reminds us exactly why we took the leap into building this program.

After 5 years in the B2B game, I started to feel a little tired of the corporate setting where people are interested but not fully invested in the tools we teach. So this B2C program was our experiment to see how it would look and feel to create that direct relationship with students. And I loved it (and so did Claire!).

Given the positive feedback we received, we are going to offer another live cohort of the program starting January 2026 - more details below for those interested.

The last six months have been full-on, intense, rewarding, and fruitful. We’ve really been learning so much in the process of developing this new offer, and in many ways it feels like we’ve been climbing a mountain. Each time we reach a summit, we turn and see there’s more mountain to climb.

Back in March, the first mountain was conducting over 75 one-to-one, in-depth client interviews. These were all about figuring out who we could best serve with this program, finding those people (some of whom read this newsletter 👋), and going deep to understand their challenges, frustrations, and pain points. We asked what they had tried in the past, what worked, what didn’t, and what they wanted to be different in their lives.

We of course had a decent understanding, five years in, of why businesses and organizations hire us. But it was a whole new ballgame to talk directly to people and hear about their personal struggles: whether it was feeling scattered, stressed, and overwhelmed, or just flat out exhausted.

Honestly, it gave me a tremendous sense of gratitude to have these frank conversations with such a wide variety of people, and also an enormous sense of compassion to hear all the struggles. Each person I spoke to had an impressive resume, serious career accomplishments, and would be considered successful from any professional standard. And yet, the challenges they shared with me were raw and honest. It reminded me of that quote: “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” These conversations reminded me how hard being a human in 2025 can be.

The next was digging through our notes and reflections on 75 hours of conversations, trying to find the commonalities. We asked ourselves: where does my own story of transformation and what we teach overlap with what people told us? Who can we help the most? How do we build a program that validates both what people shared and what I have personally experienced in my own journey of transformation?

It was exciting, because the last course we built was an online course called Sustainable Productivity back in 2021–22, and our approach then was very different. It was basically: here are all the things I’ve learned that are helpful and great, and we put them into a course and tried to market it. But we didn’t really talk to people first to understand what they needed. We took the ‘build it and they will come approach’ and it didn’t really work.

This time, we approached it differently. We started with the challenges and struggles that people shared with us, and then we brought together all the frameworks, tools, and techniques we knew could help with those very specific challenges. Designing with a very specific person in mind gave us so much more clarity in insight into the program we needed to build.

We based the program on some foundational pillars, which reflect our expertise in areas like focus optimization, stress mastery, nervous system regulation, and energy management. We blended tools from psychology, neuroscience, meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, and more to build a program that is practical, science-driven, and above all, transformational.

Then came the third mountain: finding and enrolling clients.

Instead of spending a bunch of time designing a website, marketing materials, and doing a lot of social media, we did this all through very direct, personal outreach. I had almost another 50 one-to-one conversations with people we thought would be a good fit, understanding their stories, listening to what they needed, explaining the program’s goals, and showing them what their investment of time, energy, and money would help them achieve.

In the end, we enrolled 13 clients from a wide variety of backgrounds — folks from Germany, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Portugal, and the U.S. — and began the cohort in July.

One thing that surprised me as being very powerful was the commonality our students shared in feeling overwhelmed and scattered, and how many felt like they were the only ones. I’ve had those same feelings myself, often blaming a lack of willpower or discipline, and assuming it was a personal failing. Many of our students carried similar self-judgments.

By the second and third weeks, the group began to see they weren’t alone. On one coaching call, a client with a very successful professional life shared how validating it was to hear others describe the same challenges. That moment of connection was powerful.

It tied into a theme we explore in the course: the evolutionary mismatch. The way our brains and bodies were designed through evolution doesn’t always align with the realities of modern workplaces and society. Simply humanizing that truth for people made a big difference.

Of course, enrolling students was only half the challenge. The real work was delivering an experience that matched our vision. Even though I’ve been teaching, training, and designing content since 2018 (professionally, full-time for five years), we were building something very different and very new.

What was harder than expected was designing the content and experience in a way that was both practical and effective. Each tool and technique needed to build on the previous one, with just enough homework and mini-challenges sprinkled between modules so students could experience the benefits without feeling overloaded.

We also had to make tough calls about what was essential for transformation. A lot of subtraction was required. We were diving into fairly complex terrain: the nervous system, the nature of the mind, attention training, awareness practices. Many weeks we found ourselves asking: what is the absolute core that someone needs to know in order to put these strategies into practice and actually feel the benefits?

By the end of the cohort, we had learned as much as our students. And while it was challenging, it was also deeply rewarding. The experience left us with a clearer sense of what works, what doesn’t, and what it really takes to create lasting change. Here are a few of the lessons I’ll be carrying forward, both for myself and for the next cohort.

This journey has brought plenty of challenges, and through those challenges, a lot of growth. As I look back, a few key insights stand out. I share them here partly as a record for myself, but also in case they’re useful for you.

Claire and I knew we wanted to go in a new direction with this type of program. It had been on our minds and in our hearts for a while. We had tried to do it on our own and really struggled. So we went looking for help.

We explored a number of different options, from partnerships to paid mentorship, and eventually joined a structured program to help us build this new offer. That structure has been so helpful because we’re learning from people who have already done what we want to do. Of course, we’ve still had to work incredibly hard every step of the way. No one is going to do the work for us. But having a blueprint to follow has been super useful.

On top of that, there’s a really supportive community. When we get stuck, we can ask questions and get direct feedback very quickly. The team running the accelerator is there when we need more expert guidance, and they host weekly calls we can dip into. Having that kind of support has been so valuable to get us unstuck at various moments in the process. Not to mention, three of our close friends in Lisbon have been through the same program, so we peppered them with questions every step of the way (you know who you are…thank you 🙏).

Whenever you’re creating something new, there’s so much perfectionism, judgment, and self-criticism that can block the creative process. Especially when it’s something of your own, the fear of judgment can feel overwhelming.

One of the big reminders we got from the program, and one we’ve had to tell ourselves again and again: you have to make it exist now, and then make it great later. Nothing is ever truly finished. And the ‘perfection’ I so crave is really an illusion. It’s all about constant improvements, and you need to get it in the hands of real people before you can truly understand where the gaps are.

I’m really, really proud of the program we put together, and the testimonials and results from our students speak to the impact. But I’d be lying if I said every module or lesson or tool was delivered exactly how I envisioned it in my head. If we had gotten hung up on making it perfect, we probably never would have shipped it. And if we hadn’t shipped it, 13 students wouldn’t have experienced real change in their lives, and we wouldn’t have learned everything we did from running that first cohort.

In the program we talk a lot about the difference between top-down and bottom-up regulation strategies. Top-down refers to head-first approaches: thinking, mindset, meditation, talk therapy, etc. Bottom-up strategies start with the body: practices like movement or breathwork that shift how we think and feel by working through the nervous system and the body.

I meditated consistently for about five years before I really started to explore breathwork and nervous system regulation. And honestly, seeing the difference it has made for our participants has been eye-opening. Many of them picked up very simple tools and practices that made a huge impact on how they think, feel, and show up. Breathwork helped them feel more focused, clearer, and more present in their day-to-day lives. Daily movement helped them feel more energized, let go of chronic stress, and find creative solutions to the problems and puzzles in their lives.

That experience has given me more confidence, enthusiasm, and a stronger desire to share these types of tools with more people. They’re simple, accessible, and incredibly effective.

I think this takeaway is useful for anyone, not just our participants. If you’ve ever felt stuck in your head, try starting with your body. It can shift your whole perspective.

We’re just getting ready to open up the application window for the next cohort, which will start on Tuesday, January 20th. Applications will be open until Friday, December 19th.

If you’ve been running hard all year and want a big reset as you start 2026, this program is designed to give you the tools and space to do exactly that.

It’s also the final live cohort we’ll run before transitioning The Inner Operating System to a hybrid/evergreen format in 2026.

So if you’re the type of person who knows a synchronous, live setting works best for how you learn, this is the best chance to experience the program in this style.

• Seven live modules delivered over Zoom (90 minutes each, one per week)

• Weekly group coaching calls for support, feedback, and questions

• Private community space to share progress, ask questions, and stay accountable

• Ongoing weekly coaching after the live course ends (because real change takes time)

• Feel less exhausted, scattered, or overwhelmed

• Feel more focused, energized, present, and in control

• Make consistent progress on what matters most to you

• Break cycles of reactivity and stress and increase your overall resilience

• Be more present in your relationships and life

• Build healthy habits to stop you from burning out and increase your overall sense of well-being and satisfaction

On focus and stress:

“For the first time in years, I feel like I have tools I can actually use day-to-day to manage my stress and focus. It’s practical, grounding, and genuinely transformative.” — Sarah

On resilience and presence:

“I’m more resilient, more present for my family, and making better decisions with my time and energy. The program has been a game-changer.” — Madeleine

On overwhelm and prioritization:

“I feel less overwhelm, more resilience, and I’m making time for the things that are most important to me.” — Jenny

On energy and intention:

“I felt constantly stressed and depleted. Now I’m managing stress cycles, feeling more focused and energized, and making intentional choices about how I show up at work and at home.” — Uche

If this resonates, I’d love to explore it with you

👉 Book a call here to see if it’s a fit

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back here soon with more reflections and stories.

Connor