A Change in the Wind

About 2 years ago, I decided I no longer wanted to be a teacher. Back in May, I left teaching with $2k in savings and a few paychecks left over the summer and started The Uninterrupted Life. The mission: to figure out what life looks like when I have nothing but green lights.

Who would I be if nothing stood in my way?

As much as I maybe would have liked to not work at all and travel around the world, I knew eventually I would need a source of income. I initially geared my social media and new business towards becoming a holistic health and wellness coaching service. I even became a certified personal trainer and wellness coach. It seemed like a logical step, an extension of teaching and a way of channeling a genuine passion I have for life with others.

I hired an amazing coach to help me get my coaching business off the ground. Together we worked on my self value and concept, identified some key limiting beliefs and transformed them into aligned action, and created a pretty cool offer suite. We accomplished a ton in 3 months, and I’m very proud of how much I learned in that time.

But here's the thing…I wasn't selling.

Not just that people weren’t buying (which was also the case), I wasn’t selling my offers.

I had the pain points mapped out, 300+ "magnetic hooks," and plenty of viral hacks, scripts, and frameworks. But none of that worked.

At first I thought it was because I had an aversion to selling or possibly showing up on social media. And, I wouldn't deny this wholly or make excuses — I can definitely improve my persuasive language skills, the consistency at which I show up on social media, and how to better target my messaging to attract the people I can best serve.

The more I dug into trying to figure out why I was avoiding selling my offers the more clear it became that I didn't really believe in them or frankly like them all that much.

Something just felt off, and this feeling wouldn’t go away. It felt inauthentic and misaligned, a lot like I was trying too hard to say the right things.

And then I took a long, hard look at my other passion projects. I'm realizing that while I love holistic wellness, maybe I love it more as a hobby and conversation as opposed to a 1:1 coaching business.

Compare that to my app, Arete, and my book "Techquilibrium." I've made more content about my app than I have about any of my coaching services, and I've written 12,000 words of my book in less than a week. To me, that says something.

Here’s my dilemma: my app and book are long-term projects. I've found investment for my app, but the process is moving slower than I anticipated and the development takes time. My plan is to have a full launch ready by January 2026.

If I keep the same writing pace, my book could be finished before the end of the year and I can explore publishing avenues. Which is amazing!

As exciting as all that is, the question still remains: How do I afford to stay afloat until then?

I'm not panicked, worried, desperate, or despondent. I’m surprisingly … calm despite having to pause my personal trainer, one of my gym memberships, and Netflix account. One of my mentors suggested merging two of my silos to better focus my energy towards generating sustainable revenue while still actively pursuing projects, like the app and book.

Since it is looking like the app is going to take longer to put together than I thought, that leaves room to merge my coaching business with my book that explores the relationship between integrative technology and our humanness.

So I've decided to go a slightly different route and try something new: Skool. If you haven't heard of it, it’s an all-in-one platform for housing communities, forums, educational content, and more.

I'm calling mine The Presence Project.

In hindsight, this feels like a natural extension of my personal journey. I read “The Power of Now” several years ago for the first time and it changed my life and living in the present. As a musician, I coach others towards an awareness of the present moment - the ultimate act of surrender in music. I even just finished a 6-part series with another creator called “Disconnect to Reconnect” that explored how to reconnect with ourselves in light of the overwhelm of technology. This series actually became the inspiration for my book!

The Presence Project is for anyone who is tired of being controlled by inanimate objects and screens. Who feel exhausted with the constant upkeep, missing out on life's moments. Who feel glued to their phone and like they can never get away or truly turn off. It's for those that maybe have experienced a few blissful moments of being in the present and want to cultivate more of that in their life.

Maybe you want to reclaim your attention, focus, and energy. You're tired of being constantly available, constantly scrolling, or constantly saying "huh?" when someone is talking to you because you were too busy looking at your phone to listen.

That's what The Presence Project is here for. To explore how to craft a life in the present without removing technology completely. We know it’s not going away, so pretending like ditching the screens altogether is impractical and disadvantages us for the future.

I want to have real conversations about the effect technology is having on our lives, beyond just our critical thinking and relationships. To discuss the implications of increasingly sophisticated AI and how we can use it to our advantage without sacrificing what it means to be a person.

Is this a stupid idea?

Idk maybe.

But all I know is I told my students multiple times throughout the year "Your life is not in your phone." I even included it in every senior speech I got to deliver. I am always asking my musicians to look up; to get their eyes out of the music and into the room. When we all looked up, when we focused and took a breath as if we were one, then and only then could music be made.

Such is the same with our lives, and I want to lead whomever wants to follow into finding more presence in the present.

Social media is about expressing what you want to say to the world.

I really had to ask myself, “What do I, Coleman Flentge, want to say?”

Maybe I'm not supposed to talk about the top 3 tricks to build your biceps, the best morning smoothie for fat loss, manifesting abundance, neuroscience, or how to change careers and find your purpose in life.

That's okay.

There are tons of people talking about that, and a lot of them are really smart and really cool.

I also realized that I'm fine letting them talk about it.

I noticed that while everyone is trying to tell you how they made their first $10K on TikTok shop, very few people (in my experience) are talking about the relationship we have to technology and what it is doing to us as people. Ever heard, "the phone eats first?"

When did we start documenting before experiencing? And why are we spending more time capturing the moment than being captivated by it?

I think my message to the world, at least right now, is simple:

Look up.

Life is happening all around you, and your life begins when you choose to look up and see it.

So that's where I am.

I didn't have an exact idea of what The Uninterrupted Life would become, and it is bound to change form many times. The beauty of where I am in life is that I get to discover the path as it unfolds before me. Who knows where this will lead, if anywhere, but it feels like the right next move and I'm excited to follow where it leads.

And if this flops?

I'll figure something else out. Life rarely turns out the way we expect it, and the fun increases exponentially when we let it take its course, sit back, and enjoy the drive.

I'll still be posting on Instagram and other social media channels, but instead of talking exclusively about the 8 pillars of wellness, or trying to sell people on a course, coaching program, or PDF, I'll be talking about things that Coleman wants to talk about. Music. Meditation and mindfulness. Philosophy. Spirituality. Creativity. Technology. And whatever else comes up.

I’ll also still be continuing my private coaching practice, and anyone who is interested in working 1:1 can always reach out.

I am grateful for everyone that is cheering me on, watching me explore something new, and wishing for my success. I am also grateful that I get to share this journey with you and figure it out in real time.

It's not fully ready yet, and I don't know how to work the platform.

We'll figure that out too.

Wherever I meet you—on Skool, Instagram, in this newsletter, or wherever else the road might lead us, I hope my story inspires you to ask yourself, "Who would I be if nothing stood in my way? Who would I be, uninterrupted?"

I was asked the other day to define freedom (within the context of lifestyle design and wellness). People think freedom comes from an abundance of money, or just being able to do what you want, when you want, how you want.

I don’t disagree with the latter, but I believe that freedom is found when we consciously choose how we experience life, one moment at a time.

Let’s choose to look up.

Until next time, live uninterrupted.

~Coleman