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Updates from The Modern Monk
The Wellness Club, Life Priorities, and More
Howdy Y’all!
Here’s the outline for today’s newsletter:
Updates on The Wellness Club Meditations
Life and Career Updates
Closing Remarks
Let’s get into it!
Updates on The Wellness Club Meditations
We have continued to have community meditations at The Wellness Club in Chapel Hill every Monday and Wednesday at 7:30pm with the doors opening at 7pm!
We have new faces and familiar faces show up at every session and it’s been amazing. We typically have 4-8 people in attendance and it’s become very casual. We chat for a few minutes, meditate 1-2x, and reflect afterwards. It’s been so much fun to watch the community grow. I’m beyond grateful to Willie for allowing me to use the space for community building and to y’all for consistently showing up and sharing your presence with me.
The Wellness Club Meditations have become purely community based and free and they will continue to be as time passes. This leads me to my most recent life and career updates!
Life and Career Updates
1. I’m moving !
I’ll be moving back to Wendell with my dad august 1st. I will continue to host the meditations Monday’s and Wednesday’s in Chapel Hill! My intention while living there is to take care of my health, save up some money, and above all else, secure a full time tech job in the triangle
2. I’m looking for full time tech roles in the triangle !
I’m looking for product oriented roles specifically. Ever since my job as a product planner at Microsoft, I’ve been heavily involved in working with teams on tech products (among other things) specifically. I excel at shaping product vision, understanding consumer needs, and facilitating cross functional collaboration via effective communication for products to be released on time and with quality. I’m currently networking with anyone who works in tech in the triangle to see where might be a good fit for me. If y’all know anyone who works for a tech company in the triangle, I would greatly appreciate if you could intro me to them.
3. BuddyAI is really coming to life !
Speaking of tech products, I’ve spent the past 3 years working on Buddy, an AI companion that helps users understand their thoughts, actions, and emotions more clearly. I’ve been working with 2 engineers on creating a prototype while also doing a lot of research on competitors, product design, therapeutic modalities, and journalling. I intend to share my research here and on LinkedIn as time passes. Once we get a platform ready to go, I’d love to have y’all test the product! This will be my passion project that will continue to sharpen my product skills in the tech space until I find a full time role. I intend to continue working on this project once I get a full time job as well!
4. Entrepreneurship is going well !
In the midst of looking for a full time job, I’ve needed income to buy my groceries and keep me surviving. I started looking for part time jobs and posting coaching offers on my YouTube channel in order to secure some survival cash. To my pleasant surprise, I made about $200 last week from coaching + consulting which has allowed me to pay for my life expenses while I search for a full time opportunity. I’ll be continuing to take this coaching seriously on my YouTube channel and grow that income stream as I search for a job.
5. I’ve become a business consultant for a local gym !
I was a personal training intern at Oak + Iron fitness in Raleigh two years ago before finishing up my last semester at Chapel Hill. I recently met with the owner, Matt, and was able to secure some awesome work in exchange for a free membership at his gym ($300 value). I’ll be looking into his membership analytics and helping him generate more memberships for the Cary location he’s opening up at the beginning of August! I’m very excited to be integrated into their health and fitness community again + being able to help Matt grow his business while gaining awesome experience in the process.
Closing Remarks
Above all else, I am feeling so grateful for the direction my life is headed in. I get more quality time with family, opportunities to community build via meditation in Chapel Hill and Fitness in Raleigh + Cary, experience building awesome tech with awesome people via Buddy, service based entrepreneurship via YouTube, and time + space to find an abundant and aligned tech job in the Triangle.
Consistency and commitment have been core terms on my mind recently. Being able to commit to something and follow through consistently are valuable skills to have in life. I am making firm commitments to
Finding a tech job
Coaching on YouTube
Building Buddy
Leading Meditations at The Wellness Club
Taking care of my health and wellness
And it feels great to take action and know I’m following through on these every day. Consistency is not easy and it takes deep understanding of your values + willingness to follow through. Boundaries need to be set, goals need to be clear, and consistent action needs to be taken.
I’ve spent the last three years essentially solely focused on my spiritual journey. I felt like I had to abandon the world in order to find some sort of deep spiritual truth. My spiritual quest led me to the realization that the most spiritual thing to do is to be deeply integrated into the world and commit to life!
I’m so grateful to feel like a normal human with normal goals again. Everything I do is rooted in creating more wellbeing for as many people as I possibly can. This starts with taking care of my own wellbeing first.
Here is to entrepreneurship, stable jobs, health, wellness, vitality, love, compassion, purpose, and engaging fully with life!
I love all of you,
Joe
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