That’s all of us are: Amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.
~ Charlie Chaplin
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On this day
May 2ndCharles St.John | Quick Wins for Business Online Presence
On Castbox.fm — Charles St.John | Quick Wins for Business Online Presence
How can fitness businesses, particularly Parkour gyms, enhance their online presence effectively with limited resources?
The interplay of websites, search engines, and social media for fitness marketing is unpacked.
There are, what I believe to be, relatively quickly implemented things that are fairly simple for marketing that can have massive payoffs. And then lots and lots of other things that can give you like that extra 10 percent, to get a couple more students […] but might take hundreds of more man hours.
~ Charles St. John (3:31)
The conversation explores the challenges and strategies for enhancing the online presence of fitness businesses, particularly Parkour gyms. Topics include domain name selection, which can significantly affect search engine visibility and customer acquisition. Suggestions include prioritizing a memorable, high-level domain and avoiding similar names to competitors. Emphasis is placed on focusing efforts on impactful marketing practices rather than getting bogged down by less rewarding tasks.
The discussion highlights three critical spheres of online presence: direct communication through a website and email, visibility in search engines like Google, and engagement on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Tools like Google Business Profiles and link management services such as Linktree are recommended for simplifying user interaction and driving conversions. Broader marketing strategies such as targeted ads and presence across multiple digital spaces are suggested for maximizing impact.
Takeaways
Effective domain names — Ensuring distinct and memorable domains helps in establishing a unique identity.
Online presence — Establishing a synergy between websites, search engines, and social media is critical.
Google tools — Utilizing Google Business Profiles for easier discovery and accurate information representation.
Ad management — Using platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads to track and refine marketing strategies.
Consistency in branding — Maintaining uniform handles and descriptions across platforms simplifies user recognition.
Conversion optimization — Leveraging tools like Linktree to guide users toward desired actions such as signups or purchases.
Resources
@stjohn.charles — Charles on Instagram
Charles St. John — On LinkedIn.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Real change
Change—real change—comes from the inside out. It doesn’t come from hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior with quickfix personality ethic techniques. It comes from striking at the root—the fabric of our thought, the fundamental, essential paradigms, which give definition to our character and create the lens through which we see the world.
~ Stephen Covey
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Coregulation with Matthew Word Bain
What is the relationship between creative mediums, human connection, and self-expression?
The creative process intertwines visual, auditory, and emotional elements to invite a relationship with the unknown.
What I’m intending to do is invite people into a relationship with the unknown.
~ Matthew Word Bain (16:24)
The conversation explores how creative endeavors, such as photography, music, and podcasting, serve as forms of recording and self-expression. Matthew describes creativity as an act of documentation and invites a relationship with the unknown through mediums that capture moments, emotions, or ideas. He emphasizes the fluid boundaries between visual and auditory art, such as pairing photography with poetry, and the layered nature of the creative process.
A significant focus is on human connection, particularly through co-regulation and its impact on creativity and communication. Matthew highlights the physiological and emotional benefits of co-regulation during conversations and podcasting, emphasizing how prosody and visual cues support nervous system resilience. These ideas reveal a deeper understanding of how creative and conversational contexts shape human experiences and relationships.
Takeaways
The relationship between creative mediums — Creative practices often share a foundational goal of documenting and exploring experiences.
The interplay of photography and poetry — Combining visual and textual mediums creates layered expressions of meaning.
The role of co-regulation in communication — Human interaction benefits from the subconscious regulation of emotions and safety.
Hidden values of podcasting — Podcasts support nervous system regulation and foster a sense of connection for both creators and listeners.
The influence of cultural disembodiment — Western tendencies toward disconnection from the body impact creative and conversational dynamics.
The intentional use of social objects — Art and media can serve as focal points for conversation and connection.
The role of prosody in communication — The musicality of speech conveys emotional safety and enriches interactions.
Resources
Sacred Terrain — Matthew’s website showcasing photography and poetry.
Patreon (Matthew Word Bain) — A platform for supporting and accessing Matthew’s creative work.
The Master and His Emissary — A book by Dr. Iain McGilchrist exploring brain hemispheres and their roles.
Gaping Void — A resource on social objects and art by Hugh MacLeod.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Progressive development
Indeed, the grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older; Societies better.
~ Bovee
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Best practices for textual websites
[…] here’s a non-exhaustive, highly-opinionated list of best practices for websites that focus primarily on text. I don’t expect anybody to fully agree with the list; nonetheless, the article should have at least some useful information for any web content author or front-end web developer.
~ Rohan Kumar from, Best practices for inclusive textual websites
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Zoinks! Just reading the few paragraphs in Kumar’s Introduction suddenly renewed my pride at being among the few humans who build web sites. I’ll go so far as to say: Insomuch as it is within my powers, I hereby declare said Introduction to be mandatory ready for anyone who types upon a keyboard anything which subsequently appears on the Internet.
Next I’ll point out—imagine I’m the tour guide with the headset-mic and we’re on the open-air bus touring behind the scenes of How the Internet Really Works—that this enormous article will show you just how complex a modern web site has become. But rather than panic, I take this as heartening. Having danced lightly through this page, each thing which I learned, helps me to do better going forward.
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Rolling up, clues, and glue
Sometimes I find things and I don’t know what to do with them. Here, for example…
Turns out I’m not the only one who obsesses over how to improve text-based communication. There’s a lot of context that we often infer, on-the-fly as we’re communicating with asynchronous messaging. Rolling that up (hiding it from sight) and down (revealing it) is not done by any current system that I know of.
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The size of your identity
I think what religion and politics have in common is that they become part of people’s identity, and people can never have a fruitful argument about something that’s part of their identity. By definition they’re partisan.
~ Paul Graham from, Keep Your Identity Small
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There are two ways I can think to aim this: outward as a way to lecture others, and inward as a way to lecture myself. Lately, I find I’m choosing to aim inward with every lesson I encounter. I’m frequently trying to catch myself being untrue to my morals.
Yesterday I was asking myself: What would it mean to be, “so good, they can’t ignore you?” Asking myself such things is an ongoing theme, and I’ve always considered it from the mindset of more; from the mindset of searching for ways to improve by addition. Yes, I’ve intentionally left the subject unspecified here. Thinking about Graham’s article this morning leaves me wondering if the best way—for me today at my current place in my personal journey—might instead be to improve by removing things.
What would that look like, specifically?
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P.S.: The question, “what can I do to be so good they can’t ignore me?,” is part of my personal list of daily reminders.
Quadrupedal Movement
(Part 71 of 72 in series, My Journey)
Quadrupedal Movement (QM) is a diverse collection of movements using both hands and feet on the ground to support one’s weight.
QM is almost always done using just the feet, and not the knees, since our knees are not capable of taking prolonged usage or impact. That said, there are some small-size, low-impact, movements using various surfaces of the knees, lower legs, buttocks, and thighs which integrate well with the usual hands-and-feet-only QM.
There are countless variations of QM. Many variations are physically demanding, but many are drastically easier than the more usual bipedal movements: Using a railing with your hands for balance and support as you ascend stairs, using walking sticks and canes, and “scrambling” on hands and feet up steep slopes, are all common variations of QM.
Start here https://gmb.io/locomotion/
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…and then take a look at some advanced options, Two Hours and a Slab of Concrete.
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Meta: I’m retiring this series, “My Journey.” Over the years, my blog has changed a lot. In the beginning I had a lot of more random things here and I used this series as a way to highlight this aspect of my blog writing. Today, the blog itself is basically a record of my journey.
§4 – Handy Items in a Grab Bag
(Part 4 of 5 in series, Travel Gear)
The bag
http://www.cumberlandconcepts.com/shop/medium-zipper-bags-2/
Cumberland Concepts “medium” bag (available in a slew of colors).
This bag is quite small. That’s the point: It’s it’s easy to grab and easy to stuff into whatever it is you’re carrying that day.
What and why
This little bag provides convenience and a bit of insurance. (Its exact purpose depends on what you decide to keep in the bag.) It is easy to prepare this bag, and it requires very little maintenance to keep it ready-to-go. By purposefully setting it up, you will beginning thinking intentionally about packing. You will begin building the habit of thinking about why are you packing, what do you need, what do you want, and balancing the answers against how much you want to carry around.
Following is a list of ideas intended to spur your thinking. I have no idea what you will want to put into this bag. There are surely some items you’ve wished you had, but which would be impossible to individually remember to always bring, and there are some important-in-a-pinch items that could be priceless insurance in rare situations. As you read this list, imagine scenarios where you would smile when you realized, “oh! I have [item] with me!”
- Small notebook and pen/pencil
- Epi-pen
- Pocket knife
- Medication
- Micro flashlight
- Pack of tissues
- Some spare cash
- Something to eat
- Spare identification
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Bonsai
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Boosting your adaptive reserves
Heart rate variability turns out to be a generalized, deep measure of health. That’s because higher HRV is a strong indicator of resilience to stress, while low HRV is a sign of reduced capacity to tolerate stress. And at the deepest level, health is resilience, and diseases in various ways compromise resilience.
~ Todd Becker from, Track your HRV to boost adaptive reserves
This is a REALLY good article on understanding heart rate variability. Turns out, the MORE your heart rate varies — in terms of the variation of the timing from one beat to the next — the more that indicates good cardiovascular health. I found that idea to be counter-intuitive. I would have guessed, wrongly, that the more regular the heart beats were, the better.
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