123: What Would Make Everything Else Unnecessary?
One question that ended three years of saying "not yet"
Here’s a question that might be running your life without you noticing: “What’s the best opportunity?”
It’s the wrong question. It leads to spreadsheets, pros-and-cons lists, and paralysis disguised as rigor. You evaluate twelve options. You pick none. Or you pick three and do all of them badly.
There’s a better question: “What would make everything else unnecessary?”
One commitment so clear that the hundred smaller decisions answer themselves. Not “what’s optimal” but “what would change who I have to become?”
For Carolina Wilke and me, the answer turned out to be an event we’d been avoiding for three years.
The Short Version
We’re hosting a gathering for 500 people Substack creators in Montreal in September 2027. Four days. Mornings in a historic theater hearing stories from people who’ve built audiences and offers in public. Afternoons, the city becomes the venue: self-organized meetups in cafes, parks, bagel shops across Mile End.
No corporate sponsors. No panels. No lanyard culture.
We’ve been talking about this publicly for a week. But I realized I hadn’t shared why this matters with this community specifically. So here it is.
(There’s an ask later in this essay. I’d rather you know that now than feel led somewhere you didn’t choose.)
Why We Kept Saying “Not Yet”
Carolina loves retreats. I spent my early twenties working for an event production company, close enough to concerts with 50,000+ people to feel what happens when that many humans gather in one place.
We both knew events would be part of Sacred Business Flow eventually. But we also knew we weren’t ready. The business needed stability first. The community needed time. The methodology needed to prove itself.
So we parked the idea. For almost three years, every time it came up: “Not yet.”
What Changed
That question I mentioned: “What would make everything else unnecessary?”
Once we said yes to creating Substack Unconference, a certain kind of clarity showed up. Not because it’s the only thing we’re doing. But because a commitment this size forces you to get honest about what actually matters and what’s just noise.
Some decisions got simpler. Some distractions lost their pull. When you know where a big chunk of creative energy is going, you stop entertaining every shiny opportunity that floats by.
The second question was simpler: “What feels like a stretch?”
I don’t know how we’re going to get 500 people to Montreal. Not yet. That’s the point. The goal isn’t just to host an event. It’s to become the people capable of hosting this event. Your business is a container for your growth. Ours is no different.
Three Threads That Lined Up
First: timing.
Substack reminds me of the blogging wave in 2006-2007. Same vibe: people guest-posting on each other’s blogs, promoting each other’s work, building audiences together. Out of that era came World Domination Summit, an event that ran for over a decade and shaped how a whole generation of online creators thought about gathering in person.
Second: values.
Everything we teach comes back to this: structure supports essence, not the other way around. Inner alignment creates outer results. You don’t build a business by forcing yourself into someone else’s template. You build it by honoring who you actually are and then creating systems that serve that.
We’re building this event the same way. We want to do it. That’s allowed. Then we wrap structure around that want. We’re practicing what we believe.
Third: what’s happening with AI.
I’ve watched it get better at everything I do online. It can’t get better at being in a room with me. That’s where I want to put my chips. Community, in person, remains hard to fake. For now, that’s enough for me.
These three threads lined up. So we’re moving.
What This Has to Do With You
You’ve probably felt a specific kind of loneliness that’s hard to explain.
You’ve sat in business programs where nobody talked about energy, alignment, or what it actually feels like to build something that matters to you. You’ve sat in spiritual containers where nobody talked about money, systems, or how to actually get your work in front of people. You’ve been looking for a room where both are welcome.
This is that room.
The main stage will run a few hours each morning. Stories from entrepreneurs and creators, including the parts that didn’t go as planned.
What actually matters happens in the afternoons. Self-organized gatherings across the city. You could host a session. Because you are building something too, and this is a stage.
The environment will support strangers becoming collaborators, as speakers and attendees mix without distinction.
I experienced this firsthand at Camp Good Life Project, an event run by Jonathan Fields. Big names sat next to beginners. No VIP section. Everyone contributed. Everyone belonged. I left that event knowing: if I ever were to build a gathering, it would look like this.
Building in the Open
We’re publishing the whole process as it happens. Venue research, budget math, fears, mistakes. Not a polished announcement followed by a ticket link.
Building in public is partly transparency and partly marketing. I’m aware of that. But I’d rather you watch us stumble than read a case study afterward.
We started a separate publication for this. Subscribe for free and you’ll get updates every few weeks. First access when registration opens.
The Ask
There’s a paid tier called Founding Builders. $250 for the year. You get the actual numbers: vendor quotes, budget lines, the spreadsheets behind every decision. Monthly calls where we make decisions together.
I won’t pretend it’s not also how we fund the early work. It is.
I also know $250 isn’t nothing. For many of you, it’s a stretch. That’s why it converts to a credit towards your ticket if you come to Montreal. You’re not paying twice. You’re investing early.
Founding Builders shape this before it goes public. Speakers, workshop hosts, community leaders will come from that group first. Not because it’s exclusive, but because they’ve been here while it’s being built.
If that’s not for you, no pressure. Following along for free is plenty.
What I Know
I don’t know if 500 people will show up. I don’t know if the math will work the way I’m currently thinking about it. I don’t know what problems we haven’t anticipated yet.
What I know: the people doing this work need a place to be together. Not to network. Not to collect business cards. To feel less alone in something that is, by design, done alone.
If you’ve been waiting for permission to take your work more seriously, to invest in being in the room instead of watching from outside, consider this that permission.
The parking lot is empty now.
One thing I’m genuinely curious about: if you showed up in Montreal, what’s the one conversation you’d want to have that you can’t have online?
Happenings
Sacred Business Stories w/ Jane Riccobono
Jane Riccobono spent years inside the medical system thinking she could change it from within.
She became a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. She did everything right. And slowly, she became the thing she never wanted to be: rushed, burned out, squeezing patients into 15-minute slots.
So she left.
Now she calls herself a nurse, midwife, and witch. Not witch as villain. Witch as in the wise woman healers who were persecuted for knowing that bodies and spirits can’t be separated.
Her Substack, The Wise Body, sits at the intersection of women’s healthcare, yoga philosophy, and intuitive wisdom. She lights candles before sessions. She gives people more than 15 minutes. She treats menopause as initiation, not disease.
This is someone who refused the false choice between legitimate medicine and honoring the body’s wisdom.
Sound familiar?
We’re talking about what it means to build a practice that holds both. What she had to unlearn. What she’s still figuring out. And what happens when you stop trying to fit yourself into a system that was never designed for the care you know people deserve.
Join us live this coming Tuesday at 9am pacific / noon eastern!
Sacred Business Wonder Questions Call For Network Members
(Wednesday Feb 11th @ 10:30am eastern)
Join us for a new type of gathering where we explore the deeper questions of creating sacred business. During this call we’ll share a passage we’ve been reflecting on and pose a Wonder Question - not to get answers, but to open into living inquiry together.
A Wonder Question (as taught by one of our mentors, Jayem) invites you into the mystery of Presence through openness and curiosity, like dropping a pebble into still water and watching the ripples move through your experience.
Come as you are.
Bring your questions, your heart, and your willingness to explore how everything connects in your sacred work. No agenda, no pressure - just space for authentic conversation and deeper connection with yourself and our community.
Not a member? Upgrade to paid to access our monthly community calls + many other perks.
Who We Are Celebrating This Week: Francis Nduati
Francis Nduati said something out loud on our Sacred Business Stories episode with Jo Barnes.
He declared he was going to start showing up on Substack. Not someday. Now.
And then he actually did it.
Francis is a manufacturing engineer in the medical device space who’s building two platforms on the side: Moneytallyhq.com, a budgeting app to help people feel in control of their money, and NursingFront.com, a platform helping nurses find workplaces where they can thrive instead of burn out.
He joined the Sacred Business Network to connect, offer support, and keep learning. But what I want to celebrate isn’t the ideas or the plans. It’s the follow-through.
There’s something that happens when you declare something publicly and then do it. Not perfectly. Not with everything figured out. Just doing the thing you said you’d do.
Francis is now sharing practical daily tips on Substack about building intentional financial habits, plus lessons from building these platforms from scratch. He’s in motion.
His words:
“I believe in multiple streams of income. Not just as a smart strategy, but as a hedge against the constant technological changes that can make a 9-to-5 uncertain.”
This is what it looks like when you stop waiting for permission and start building.
Check out the note that started it all:
Things I’d Like to Share
Survival Patterns to Wealth
Eva Chen talks about money and investing, but not in the way you usually hear it. Her argument: the reason most people struggle with financial decisions isn’t a lack of knowledge. It’s a survival pattern.
The nervous system takes over. Fear starts to feel like information. Time horizons shrink.
Community as creative fuel: We create courage when we tend the fire together
Rachel Connor named a particular kind of loneliness that belongs to creative work. Not the loneliness of being alone. The loneliness of carrying something inside you that wants to emerge and having no one to witness its arrival.
If you’ve ever wondered why all the courses and strategies haven’t moved the needle, this might be why. Some kinds of becoming can only happen in the presence of others. Not the crowded room of strangers, but the intimate circle where your voice is heard and your particular light is seen.
Nine minutes. Read it if you’ve been carrying your creative work alone.
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: BOB BURG
We brought the legendary Bob Burg on because The Go-Giver has sold over 1.5 million copies and been translated into 30 languages, but also because we discovered he’s been quietly subscribed to our Substack for over a year. We had to know what he was thinking.
The core insight that grabbed us:
most people are living inside a false dilemma without realizing it.
He calls it the “treacherous dichotomy,” defined simply as the unnecessary use of the word “or.” Do you want to be wealthy or happy? Do you want to do what you love or make money?
The answer is yes.
The line that really go me: “Money is an echo of value.” You don’t chase the money. You focus on the value you’re providing. The money follows as a natural result.
If you’ve ever felt guilty about wanting to profit from something you love, or wondered why having fun and making money feel like opposites, this one’s for you. That belief didn’t come from nowhere. It came from society. And it can be unlearned.
Notes I Loved This Week
Memorable Quote
"The most important things in life aren’t the ones you can optimize or automate. They are the things that require you to show up in person, with all your flaws, and participate in the messy, unscripted reality of being human." - Ted Gioia
If you read this and felt something stir, but you’re not sure what to do with it, that’s okay.
You don’t need to know exactly what you want. You don’t need to impress us. You don’t need a polished pitch for your business or a clear explanation of why you’re stuck.
You just need to be honest about where you are.
Maybe you’ve been scattered across too many ideas and you’re looking for the one that would organize everything else. Maybe you’ve been sitting in rooms that only speak half your language, strategy without soul or spirit without systems, and you’re tired of choosing. Maybe you just want to be in a conversation where both parts of you are welcome.
This is 30 minutes for us to listen, ask a few questions, and share what we see. We’ll talk about what you’re building, what’s getting in the way, and whether working together makes sense.
P.S. You can read all previous editions of the newsletter here, and you can upgrade your subscription here.
I’m not sure if you want a guest speaker/keynote but if you then I’d highly recommend reaching out to a friend of mine - Scott Stratton (Unmarketing). He is the best keynote speaker I’ve ever had the pleasure to listen to. He’s been in this space for at least 15 yrs and really understands it.
Phil, this is soooo exciting. And I love how you are building in public. I know you have the compass and the map will write itself. The universe is willing. 💪