Hapitalist

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In this episode of Hapitalist, we sit down with Christian Helms of Helms Workshop to talk about why branding is the absolute best way to get more traction for less money and less effort. If you are banging your head against the wall with marketing, it's time to fix your signal. We break down the massive difference between a logo and a brand, why competing on price is a losing game, and how to build...

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In this episode of Hapitalist, Russell sits down with former corporate executive turned CEO coach Alison Godfrey to discuss powerful coaching frameworks designed to give “chaos-minded creators” better structure and self-awareness. The conversation dives deep into the differences between therapy (excavating the past) and coaching (building a bridge to the future), and explores how our bo...

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The Big Idea

The episode explores how creators and entrepreneurs can thrive in a market being rapidly transformed by AI. Guest Aurora Winter argues that while the “middle of the market” is being crushed by generic AI-generated content, there is a massive opportunity for those who lean into their unique human “superpowers” and personal brand. Here’s some of the other str...

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Author, speaker, and meditation teacher Aaron Hendon joins Russell for a conversation that moves from the philosophy of gratitude all the way to frameworks for coaching, selling, and building a business that earns trust before it asks for anything.

1. Why Gratitude Journals Don’t Work (And What Does)

Both Russell and Aaron share a bone-deep allergy to the gratitude journal. Aaron’s argum...

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Wes Towers, founder of Uplift 360, a digital agency based in Australia that’s been building and optimizing websites for trades, construction, and industrial brands for over 20 years, joins Russell for a wide-ranging conversation about why your website is the only real estate you actually own online, why confusion kills conversions, and what good business actually looks like when you strip awa...

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Mal Cooper — sci-fi author (M.D. Cooper), Facebook ads expert, and co-founder of The Writing Wives — joins Russell to talk about what it actually takes to run ads, why indie authors keep handing money to corporations, and what the web got right the first time around.

Here are some favorite insights from this episode.

1. Facebook Ads Have No Silver Bullet — And Never Will

Every cours...

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Russell sits down with Chelle Honiker — publisher, vibe coder, and what Russell calls “the queen of vibe coding in the author industry” — fresh off a three-week international event sprint through Savannah, London, and Ireland. What starts as a state-of-the-industry conversation pivots into a live tech problem-solving session, a breakdown of how Chelle built a full author ope...

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Honestly, you’ll probably want to just skip to about minute 27 or so of this one when it goes straight into a coaching call and you see in real time how Russell’s brain works, and how it all clicks into place in 30 minutes.

In this one, Russell sits down with Jermaine, a serial founder whose current passion project, Heirlight, an AI-powered estate planning app, grew out of a deeply pers...

Hi,

I was a guest on a livestream by my friends at One Brilliant Arc (OBA) this week, and I said a lot of words. Here are some of my best takeaways. I was pretty animated in this one, and I’m still on fire even now typing this bit to you.

Everyone Has the Same Four Problems

Doesn’t matter if you’re publishing novels, drawing comics, running a tech company, or selling tarot decks — the problems are the same. T...

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I’ve been trying to understand tarot for years, but every time I tried to learn it, nothing stuck.

It’s hard for me to see the framework until I break it down and rebuilt it for my weird brain. So, that’s what I did. I broke it down to first principles and rebuilt it in a language I already understood.

This episode is all about the process I used to build this deck, the underlying ...

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This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨. Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month.

Join by clicking here.

In this episode, we’re joined by education entrepreneur and writer Michael Simmons to explore a radically different way of thinking about work, learning, and growth.

We start with ...

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This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨. Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month.

Join by clicking here.

In this conversation, we’re joined by artist and writer Elin Petronella from Follow Your Gut to talk about intuition, energy, and what it really takes to build a joyful creative l...

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This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨. Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month.

Join by clicking here.

In this conversation, we’re joined by artist and illustrator Adam Ming from Ten Minute Artist to talk about what it actually means to build a creative life that fits how you work...

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This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨. Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month.

Join by clicking here.

In it, I sat down with Seth Werkheiser from SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB to talk about why social media is making people miserable, and how it’s not actually helping most of us bui...

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In this episode, we kick off the new year by slowing down on purpose.

This episode is all about our new January Joy initiative we’ll be talking about all month as part of our Joyful Growth Club. Join at:

https://www.joyfulgrowthclub.substack.com/

Rather than jumping straight back into optimization, output, and &...

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This is the recording from December’s Path of Least Friction presentation. While I didn’t record the breakthrough sessions, I took a video of the presentation bit for you.

It breaks down your path of least friction, the place where your natural strengths, joy, and effort align to produce disproportionate ...

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This week, I’m bringing you sneak peek into Craft Con, a free two-day virtual summit I’m hosting with my friends at Plotdrive happening Thursday, Nov. 20 and Friday, Nov. 21.

Craft Con is all about helping authors break through their biggest creative blocks whether you’re stuck in the middle of your...

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I ran a live breakthrough session at Author Nation, which meant I needed to introduce the whole Hapitalist system to people who’d never heard of it before. If you want to download that presentation, including a framework for running your own breakthrough session, you can do so here.

Otherwise, here is the vibe...

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I’ve known (Wheeler Dealer) Maggie Beeler for years. I took her out to breakfast the first year we met and she was incredibly charming, if a little naive. Still, I wish I had an ounce of her ambition and direction at her age.

Since then, she’s shed the naivete and evolved into a true creative force

We&rs...