Everyone Has the Same Tools Now...So What's Left Is You!
On ecstatic dance, leaving corporate, and why the people who succeed are the ones who start before they're ready
Hello team! I have two quick updates:
Enrollment is open: “Getting to You”, the 4-week group program kicks off next week! Get clear on who you are, what you care about and how that shapes your personal brand and voice
July 10th IRL event: “How to launch a Substack for your business” RSVP here
I first discovered ecstatic dance when I was living in Lisbon for a short stint. My friend hosted us at this beautiful property, served us cacao and played music as she guided us into our bodies as the sun set on the horizon.
I’ve always been a curious person, so I was excited to try it. And I remember thinking… this feels really good.
Ecstatic Dance in Lisbon 2021
A few years on, I was going through a pretty savage breakup and, in the pit of my grief, I was called back into my body. I found an ecstatic dance space near me in London and each week I’d go on a Wednesday night by myself. Week by week, I worked through everything I felt in my body but didn’t have words for. Thinking about how sad I felt was overwhelming, but when I got into my body, I was able to find peace.
I started to access something bigger than myself. It was like I’d step through a portal and enter a space where my higher self lived, deeply creative, limitless, abundant, joyful, and full of love. As I moved and explored my edges, I felt like I was levitating and my mind opened up with all these new possibilities and ideas.
These were also the early days of working for myself. I had left corporate and felt very untethered. I kept wondering: “Where is the playbook that tells you how to transition out of full-time employment and build your own business?” I was waiting for someone to tell me what to do, because that felt like a much safer place to be.
What I came to realize is that no one was going to tell me what to do, which, ironically, is exactly what I had always wanted. To be free…but I hadn’t realized what freedom would actually feel like. I had so many options and, because of that, I found myself frozen.
One week at ecstatic dance, I brought my feelings to the dance floor, closed my eyes, and started to ask my higher self for answers:
“Help me,” I said in my head. “Help me find the answers. Help me with my next steps. Help me be of service. Help me serve something bigger than myself.”
That week, I got a download. I stopped looking outside of myself and started to get clear on what I loved, what I was good at, and how I could help change people’s businesses with my skills.
The Canva post for “Getting Visible” 8-week group program in 2023
“Getting Visible,” I typed on a Canva post.
It was the summer of 2023, and I decided: Fuck it. This has really helped me. I know it will help others. So I wrote out the bones for a course based on my skills, competencies, track record, and obsessions.
I had worked through so many visibility blocks since leaving corporate, because I knew that if I wanted more clients, I would have to show up and share about myself and my work. I had started a Substack, a TikTok, a new Instagram account, and was posting more on LinkedIn.
The more I showed up, the more attention I got, and the more discovery calls and new clients I signed. A big part of my ability to create content that landed was the relationship I had built with myself through movement and ecstatic dance.
So I thought: what if I launched a program that taught people how to find their voice and market themselves through writing, creating content, working on their brand, and moving their bodies?
Zoom recording from a dancing session in the group program
Over eight weeks, I guided a group of consultants and coaches through the process of defining their brand, values, content, voice, and creativity.
I think back to those early days and how much courage it took to just do the thing. I believe that’s exactly why it worked, because I was never trying to be anyone other than myself.
I had no idea where it would lead but I just knew it felt right.
In Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address he speaks about life’s seemingly random and disconnected experiences are actually foundational “dots” that will intuitively and organically emerge into a purposeful, meaningful trajectory when viewed in hindsight. I think about this often. We want to know the fully fleshed out plan, but what we need to do is focus on what feels alive and right in the moment, and bravely walk towards it.
A screenshot that guided a lot of my creative work when I left corporate.
What started as a small group program based on things I loved teaching and doing, has led me somewhere I genuinely could not have imagined. 3 years on, “Getting Visible” is now a program I am running at one of the fastest-growing tech companies here in NYC, and I couldn’t have planned it if I tried. I just kept following what felt aligned.
This is what I believe we all need to do, especially now, in a world being reshaped by AI. Your success lies in your ability to connect with yourself, get clear on who you are, what you care about, and what you want to bring into this world that only you could create, because there is only one of you.
The old world told us to look outside of ourselves for value and worth. To follow someone else’s ten-step plan to get from A to B.
The new world doesn’t have a plan. We’re in a unique moment where the playing field is level and every single one of us has an opportunity to build something that is uniquely, unmistakably ours.
When everyone has access to the same tools, and AI exists to give us more knowledge than we’ve ever had, what emerges is our human ability to tap into creativity and build things that may have been unimaginable before.
You left corporate to build a life on your terms, and now you’re being asked to step up and make it happen.
I believe in you.
All the love and light as you build and grow,
Tish xxxxxx
Ways to work together
Book a discovery call here
Enrollment Open: “Getting to You” 4-week group program starts July 7th
IRL Workshop July 10th “How to launch a Substack for your business” RSVP here
Stay connected
🔵 Visit SHAPES website
✨ Visit Tish Diggs website
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YESSS! This lady!!!!