We believe that everyone alive has a vow—a life purpose, calling, or vocation—that we are here to discover and give to the world. We discover our vows iteratively, through trial and error, play and experimentation. It is emergent, rather than fated or pre-destined. It arises from the meeting of what we want and what the world needs.
We aim to identify wise, loving, powerful, beneficent, skilled, cool people—heroes—that we are well-positioned to help, and to catalyze their vow. We spend time getting to know them: listening to them, asking them questions, learning about where they are at in their lives, what their goals and dreams are. We develop a deep understanding of who they are, and reflect what we see back to them, as mirrors in a dark room, guides along a singular path.
We then co-create a service project—a quest—with them. A service project is a fun, challenging project that is aligned with their skills and goals, that they are capable of doing at their current skill level, that will help them to grow, and will be of benefit to the world. We understand designing, executing, and completing a service project—giving a gift—to be an actionable way for the people we work with to move towards living their vow.
We are building a community of people who are orienting towards using their skills and giving their gifts in service to the world—a tribe of heroes, embarking on quests for the benefit of all. These people can see each other, encourage each other, and support each other, becoming friends and allies and collaborators, collectively developing the skills and capacity to do more and more service projects with larger and larger positive impacts.
As our community grows, we will be able to establish an infrastructure and a pipeline for larger scale impacts. We will be able to connect the people we work with with the collaborators, mentors, money, skills, and resources that they need to flourish in giving their gift and living their vow.
We aspire to bring about a heavenly realm—a realm where everyone alive is living their vow, for the joy and benefit of all.
Service Projects
Here is a curated selection of some of the fun service projects that we’ve worked on with some of the heroes in our community:
Project Name: Alone Time
Hero: Christine
Quest Description: Record and share a 5-12 minute film with your iPhone using a horizontal landscape view that captures a slice of life and is psychologically honest & emotionally resonant.
Project Name: SHINE
Hero: Anansi
Quest Description: A video sigil where Anansi gives a sermon about how you, we, all of us, as long as we are willing to Be, that’s the greatest gift we can give to the world. It will feature animations, illustrations, sound and music and live storytelling.
Project Name: Metta Machine
Hero: Benjamin Pence (Ulysse)
Quest Description: A VR game for Quest 2 where you send loving-kindness to lost souls.
Project Name: We All Scream
Hero: Rosie
Quest Description: Make a short video art project sharing thoughts about and recordings of people laughing, crying, orgasming/making love to promote emotional literacy.
Project Name: Your Guide to Deep Work
Hero: Alexandra Heller
Quest Description: Animate several concepts from Cal Newport’s Deep Work to make the ideas more accessible and engaging to a wider audience.
Project Name: Emoji Wallpaper
Hero: Loopy
Quest Description: Make an app that lets users express themselves with custom emoji wallpapers. Choose emojis, set display options, and save to your device in seconds.
Project Name: New Tech for the Old Now
Hero: Ben Hohner
Quest Description: Add stubs to New Tech for the Old Now to fill out content. Document the process on GYG and Twitter as a way to receive feedback and share the project.
Join Us On A Quest!
Our Empowerment Program is designed to support people like you. We want to see highly skilled, benevolent people flourish, and to build a community of heroes working together to joyfully serve the world. We believe that you have a vow, and we want to see that come to life, for your joy and the benefit of the world. If you’d like to work with us, you can apply to do a service project with us.
How It Works: Here’s how it works:
We want to co-create a fun service project with you to help you move forward with giving your gifts to the world:
Your first quest with the Empowerment Department will include all of these criteria, but will be especially focused on being Fun and Feasible.
Possible service projects include: writing a manifesto, recording a video, writing a blog post, starting a podcast, recording a song, creating a piece of art, or hosting an event. Your project will be tailored to you, though, so it’s hard to anticipate precisely what it will be in advance! We’ll work together to pick something that you feel excited about, and then you’ll have time to work on it with our support and feedback.
What to Expect: During this process, you’ll have three calls with two of our Quest Guides:
- Call 1: Understanding You: we’ll ask you open-ended questions designed to understand you, what you care about in the world, and what you might want to create. (60m)
- Call 2: Deciding On a Project: we’ll decide on a service project together, as well as a project plan and timeline. (60m)
- Call 3: Project Check-In: Halfway through your project, we’ll get on a short call to check in and see how your project is going. (30m)
You’ll also gain access to our Give Your Gift community of like-minded heroes, who wish to make cool projects that push their skills and capacities while serving the world—these are peers, potential collaborators, and downright awesome people to meet and befriend. You’ll get a “feed” channel in our Discord where you can journal in community about your projects, life, challenges, and discoveries. You’ll also be able to join our regular co-working calls and other community events.
Commitment to Integrity: Integrity is foundational in our work together. We expect both you and ourselves to DWYSYWD (Do What You Said You Would Do). On our end, we will show up to our calls with you, decide on a project with you, and support you throughout the process. On your end, you are agreeing to show up to your three calls with members of the Empowerment Department, and to undertake and complete the project we all agree on to the best of your ability.
At the end of our second call we will all sign The Integrity Spell, a playfully serious agreement between us. Feel free to read it ahead of time so you know what you’ll be agreeing to. This is not school, and your project will not be graded or judged in any way AND we want to make sure that we all hold loving expectations of one another.
Recording Calls: When we work together, one of our standard practices is to record our calls together. We find it so helpful to be able to review these calls, so that we can better understand you and the other people we work with. We suspect that you may find it helpful to review our conversations, too. If you don’t feel comfortable with us recording our calls, feel free to let us know.
A Gift of Service: This offering is made in the spirit of generosity, because we want to support you. Seriously. That’s it. We are able to offer this program because of the generous support of others. If you feel called to support us as well, you will have the opportunity to do so after you complete your project. This is not at all expected or required. We see your completed project as the most important gift you can give us and the world.
Application Process: You can express interest in doing a service project through the Empowerment Department and participating in the Give Your Gift community by filling out an application form.
The application asks you for written answers to several questions, as well as a short video recording of yourself. You can record this on your phone or laptop, and don’t need to edit it—just be yourself, and answer the questions we’ve asked. We just want to get a sense of who you are and why you want to get involved!
You don’t need to have an idea for a service project in order to send in an application—finding out your service project is part of the process of working with us!
After reviewing your application, you will hear from us within two to three weeks. At that time, we will extend an invitation to you to join our program, place you on our waitlist, or let you know that we feel that our program is not the best fit for you at this time. We believe that everyone has a vow, but we have a limited capacity to support heroes, and we want to focus our time and energy on supporting the people we are most well-positioned to support!
Ready to Start? You can apply here:
We are currently not accepting applications for the Empowerment Program!
Testimonials
Team
Mary Bajorek
I believe in creating a world where all of us are doing work that is an expression of who we are and the impact we want to make. A world where each of us lives meaningfully, courageously and unapologetically in connection with each other and ourselves.
Through my work as a work life coach at Lifeworthloving Coaching, I have guided dozens of people from all over the world in a myriad of professions to gain clarity on what’s important to them, work through external and internal blocks and make choices that lead them to share their gifts in a way that best supports both them and what the world needs.
I love people, facilitating transformative experiences through creative forms and seeing each other as learners.
Tasshin Fogleman
I’m an extremely online pilgrim wandering this precious world for the benefit of all beings. 💗
I live a simple life, dedicating my life to being of service, supported by the generosity of others.
I have three main endeavors: spreading love, following my curiosity, and empowering others.
It brings me tremendous joy to see people deeply, to help move them towards giving their deepest gifts to the world, and to watch the benefits compound and ripple out.
Anansi
Anansi is the Soul Director. An artist, wanderer, and mystic who is manifesting glory for all living beings by pursuing his vow “mystery & dopeness.”
Steph Soussloff
Steph is a friend, neighbor, social designer, facilitator, artist and guide inviting all of us to come home: to our hearts, the seat of our power and our creative life force; to land and relationships that remind us of who we really are. Play, embodiment, and Eros are the medicines she carries in her pocket.
Generosity
We are able to offer this program because of the generous support of the heroes we work with and other supporters who value service in the world. If you would like to support our work financially, you can do by contributing to us individually:
- Anansi: PayPal / Venmo 1@Matthew-Huff
- Mary: Patreon / PayPal / Wise2Account holder: Lifeworthloving Coaching
ACH and Wire routing number: 084009519
Account number: 9600009385917818
Account type: Checking
Wise’s address: 30 W. 26th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10010
United States - Steph: Venmo (@StephSoussloff)
- Tasshin: Patreon / PayPal / Venmo3@tasshin
Resources
- The Path of Empowerment: our book on what Empowerment is and how we practice it
- The Digital Productivity Coach: a personalized, self-paced productivity course I built with my friend James Stuber
- Strategy 101: an introduction to the most valuable strategy concepts I’ve found
- Learn You a Fundraising For Great Good!: everything I’ve learned about how to raise money for your service projects