I've been talking for over a year about building multiple income streams. About putting yourself in a position that if you lost your job or a major client, you're insulated from catastrophic loss of revenue. In short, you're diversified like a fine stock portfolio. You have multiple eggs in multiple baskets.

After a year of writing, I haven't exactly achieved critical mass. Additional revenue is but a trickle. This work takes time. This letter is sparked from a wake up call I had and am sharing here in the hope that it may help wake you up too.

“I know what to do. But not how to do it.”

I have been wondering if I'm in a cul-de-sac. I haven't seen significant growth of this newsletter because I haven't been promoting it, connecting with other audiences and generally being persistently visible in the right circles. I've relied on slow organic growth in part because I've been working out my voice. My focus. And the value I have to offer you, my reader.

In fact, my publishing inconsistency this month has been due to thinking more than writing!

My wake up call came when I was listening to Cal Newport's Deep Work.

Most of us behind a screen push an inordinate amount of email. Absorb pings and alerts like bugs smashing into your windshield on summer evening drive. We check our phones 82 times per day. We stay in the shallow. When we should be rolling in the deep.

The point is to use your limited time intentionally. Most social networks and media companies want you to stay distracted and click on article after article. They make money off your time and personal information. Free has a price.

How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Most of us are not using our time wisely and don't realize it.

Mark Manson says, “You are what you consume.”

You eat a lot of junk food? Your physical body will feel it. Consume a lot of mindless media? Your brain will respond accordingly with less ability to focus and make good decisions.

There's a paradox to life today: We're rewarded by doing deep work while being taunted by endless distractions. Our attention is sliced and diced to minutia yet value comes from large focused chunks of attention applied to our work.

Cal urges us to do the deep work because that's where the value lies. Most don't go there because you have to be intentional about it. Pushing email and flitting from post to post doesn't cut it.

The line from the book that stopped me was this quote:

"I know what do do, but not how to do it" - Andy Grove to Clayton Christensen.

This was in reference to how Clayton mapped out what Intel needed to do to thwart downward pressure on chips. Andy knew what to do. He didn't know how to do it.

And that's the rub. I know what I need to do. I know where I want to go. Yet I am not exactly sure how to do it.

I know I need to create a platform that delivers massive value

I know I need to build a large (enough) audience so that a decent subset is inclined to purchase my products.

Which means I need a high value product to sell.

I need to create the depth that makes me stand out from the noise. And earn the social proof and trust and attention of a critical mass. It's what all of us have to do with our portfolio work.

Easy, right?

I've known all of this from the outset of this newsletter. I have long wanted to create a small media company that taps my writing and photography. I've also long wanted to build a thriving photography gallery.

• I've watched others do it.
• I know the technology stack required.
• I know it takes consistent sustained effort over time.

I know I'm not alone. I've talked with several other people who have ideas for books and businesses they've not acted upon.

So I've been really curious about what I REALLY should be doing to spark momentum. While I've heard it's really hard to grow purely organically today, I know it's possible. Just slower. Not to mention social ads at scale are not cheap. You have to invest ahead of seeing the returns.

This conundrum applies to both my writing and my photography. On the latter, my instagram following isn't growing fast either despite my sharing of hashtags and consistency. Largely, I think, because I'm not investing hours and hours engaging with other Instagrammers. The platform is exceedingly crowded. The algorithm rewards reels and videos more than still images.

I'm in the "If you build it, they will come" mode (largely). And need to step up my game to dramatically change my trajectory. Or experience a bit of serendipitous luck along with consistent practice. But you and I can't rely on luck.

I know I need to do more. But what? How should I use the limited amount of time I have to create and promote and do my other work? How do I know that investing time in X will yield the desired results?

I don't necessarily. I can make some educated bets. So I think. And then think some more. Do some reading. Listening. Research. And then find I'm in an 'if-then' loop assessing options before acting.

I bet some of you are in this loop too.

I bet you connect with the idea of creating and having multiple income streams. I've laid out the case. I can point you to credible others who can reinforce it if you don't buy it. But then you likely wouldn't already be here if you didn't connect with the concept.

I think about what to produce. What to write. What images to create and share and when. What will move the that needle?

This newsletter is an asset I'm building. Asset building is the key to creating multiple sustainable income streams. You need an asset. You need your own platform. If Monday's Facebook outage was any wake up call, it's that you don't want to entrust your audience and asset building to a platform that can vaporize in a blip.

I also have a photography library filled with a wealth of strong images. Outside of fine art prints, I haven't productized it. Differentiated it enough to rise above.

There's an entire real-life art scene I haven't tapped into. Again, that takes time. Should I spend my calories there, or on writing?

There's the hospitality market too - selling to hotels, boutique hotels, etc.

If you've ever been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, you've no doubt seen the bevy of things that one can put an image on. In fact, I think they've mastered the variety with Van Gogh's work. While I don't foresee putting my work on an oven mitt (nor that people are clamoring for my work on an oven mitt), I could see cards and puzzles.

How about those goals?

I've long had a goal to be both financially independent and location independent. I've settled on writing and photography along with my work in marketing to achieve this.

When you break these goals down, they're too general to be actionable on a daily basis. There are too many options I could pursue. An idea a day which gets you no where. I also haven't put a strict time constraint on these goals other than someday. Clearly, this doesn't create the focus that leads to predictable outcomes.

Clayton uses the four disciplines of execution, created by Chris Chesney. When it comes to goals, you want to focus on the wildly important. AND you want to identify the lead measures that show whether you are on or off track. Getting to the end and realizing you missed your goal doesn't give you time to correct course. Lead measures do.

A good goal is to create a media business focused on helping mid to late career professionals create multiple income streams.

A tactic towards this goals is to research and write actionable content that helps people do just that.

So why haven't I done this? It's a depth thing. While my interests are varied, my execution needs to go deeper. Much deeper. Without sucking up a ton more time. It requires getting laser sharp on the work.

I keep on thinking about what. Planning what. When I need to do it. Rather than just doing. Rather than iterating quickly out in the open (aside from this letter) I'm iterating in my head. I know all the things required to move this forward. I know all of the things that keep me - and perhaps you - from moving forward.

I see it in most people. We wait until the right time. The right moment. When we're ready. There's always a damn excuse. There's always tomorrow. Except I've been saying that for awhile.

Now that it's fall and I'm looking at the end of 2021 when people everywhere make great proclamations. Talking boldly of the boulders they're going to move, the Everests they're going to scale. We feel pressure to have our goals clear. We're committed until life gets in the way.

What finally woke me up is knowing this has finally sunk in.

I need to develop my ability to do deep, focused work for long periods. Reading Cal's book I know that I need to schedule routine blocks of time when I block out time for such work. Avoid distractions and sit with the discomfort of a blank page. Schedule the research and thinking. Then, write.

Cal says that we should schedule EVERY hour of our day. Not that we fill it with constant work, but that we schedule time for what's important to us. Block out key meetings. Schedule time to check email rather than constantly dipping into your in box. Schedule your exercise and breaks. Schedule time for the mundane and knock out such tasks so you can focus on the higher value activity. His tool?

A lined sheet of paper with each Hour of your work day taking up two lines. Then draw boxes for each activity in 30 minute minimum increments. You'll not get your estimates right for certain. But it's a start.

He even suggests we schedule our free time. Because it's during our free time that we're most wasteful. Being unstructured it's easy to let distractions take us off track. So if you want to read a book, schedule it. If you want to paint your puppy, schedule time for that.

Schedule time for nurturing friendships too. Unnurtured friendships wither and die.

I hope you'll stay with me as I dive deeper into this work. And I encourage you to set specific goals that inspire you. Because if they don't, you'll not sustain the work required. Your willpower will run out. With your goals, make time for the work. Free of distractions. At times when you can work with gusto.

And make time for recharging. That will make your work better. Cal recommends a shut down routine for the end of the work day. Then don't look at your email. OR think about work. It'll make you more productive when you're back at it.

It's time to work different.