This week I announced the first public events for The Okrēo, a community of multi-creatives building awesome stories.

I’m running two of those events this week.

The rollout of the community is in motion.

Months of planning and preparation are now publicly visible, meaning I’m open to the possibility that it might suck and be hated by people.

Actually, I’m terrified that it sucks and will be hated by people.

This week I truly became a founder. And I feel more scattered than I have in a long time.

Our community has a few members already. People have signed up to get an invite to join. Others will receive invites after attending an event.

I want these people to have an expectation that The Okrēo will be great.

I have an expectation that The Okrēo will be great.

This is not the time to be scattered. I need a fix that works.

Over the past couple months, I’ve cultivated a morning ritual that works. A ritual, because the sequencing is important. Here it is:

  • Wake up before 7am
  • Have coffee
  • Send my morning voice notes & updates
  • Workout
  • Shower
  • Reply to all messages (emails, texts, Meetup) in a single sitting

This ritual works for me. After finishing it, I feel like my day has momentum. There seems to be an additional power in doing the something every day instead of just doing it regularly.

So, I’m applying the same idea to The Okrēo. Will it work? We’ll find out.

Here’s the ritual, which begins right after I finish my morning:

  • Post the day’s Okrēo content
  • Build one new Okrēo event
  • Write one new piece of Okrēo content
  • Add at least one resource to The Okrēo’s compendium of member’s resources
  • Upgrade one Okrēo touchpoint (website copy, images, messaging, etc.)
  • Brainstorm one upgrade, pivot, or “hidden opportunity” worth building
  • Have a meaningful interaction with at least one Okrēo member

Over the past couple months, the power of rituals has helped me turn my mornings into massive wins. It took several weeks of mindful adjusting to find the sequence of habits that worked as a ritual.

Now, I’m setting new PRs for my lifts in the gym. I’m sleeping through the night. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

By having a daily ritual for my morning, I rarely wake up and wonder what I’m going to do first.

By building a daily ritual for growing The Okrēo, my aim is to always do the meaningful work of the day first.

Over time, I expect that this ritual will reflect the biggest value drivers in The Okrēo — meaning more benefits and value for our members.

To me, that’s a pretty damn good reason to figure it out.