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My husband and I have been thinking about a trip to Japan for some time, but things only became "real" once we finally booked our plane tickets in March.

We then began the very long and slow process of learning basic Japanese using Duolingo (216 days now!), an online course, and NativShark.
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Then things became even more real once I realized, oh wow, this trip is only 2 months away. Time to get organized (and actually start booking things)!

With my Lonely Planet Japan guide, recommendations from friends, Reddit, and my google-fu, I began this research project like I would begin any other: with a Notion dashboard.

In this post I share a detailed look at how I planned our 30-day trip to Japan:

Interesting conversations

This week there was an interesting conversation about self promotion being a "necessary evil."

Both Ben and I had some strong opinions about this. If you struggle with the idea of promoting your ideas or your work, you might want to check out this thread and the variety of replies:

Ziki | Notion creator @ZikiDoesNotion You know what I find the most cringe as a Notion creator? Self-promotion. It's a necessary evil - you gotta get the word out, right? People need to see your work. Still, every single time, I can't help but feel that little twinge. A universal creator curse or is it just me? 11:28 PM • Oct 8, 2023 2 Retweets 34 Likes Read 20 replies

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Ultimately I believe the feeling of "cringe" is really of fear of rejection. Too often we conflate the value provided by our offers with our own value as human beings.

It's worth considering how we feel when marketing is directed at us, for something we actually want, need, or get value from.

If you really believe in your offers, and know that they create value for others, then who is not being served when you don't show up, don't share your services, and don't connect those people with your product or service?

Marketing is just connecting the right people to the right products/services/offers. You're not promoting your self, you're sharing your offers (products, services, ideas, frameworks), which hopefully were designed with real humans in mind.

How might your relationship to marketing change if you viewed it as simply a way to be of service?

Food for thought...

Just for laughs

And since it's world mental health awareness month as well as ADHD Awareness month, I thought I'd share some highly relatable content from the #ADHD community:

Dusty Chipura @dustychipura I just saw an IG post that said, “I used to think it was big of me that I didn’t hold grudges but then I remembered I have #ADHD and just can’t remember things that happened” and I feel very called out. 🤔🤔🤔🤔 5:20 PM • Sep 25, 2023 169 Retweets 1407 Likes Read 26 replies

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Mo Mo O’Brien @momo_obrien To-Do Lists < ⚔️QUEST MENUS #ADHD 8:1 AM • Oct 9, 2023 259 Retweets 1588 Likes Read 19 replies

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And this gem about oversharing:

​link to original​

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That's all for this week, please take care of yourself!

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Marie Poulin
​Notion Mastery​

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