Last week I attended a 2-day mastermind in LA. There were about 150 people in attendance, many of whom are world-class thought leaders in their respective industries.

But unlike other events I have attended with industry leaders, what made this experience so amazing is that there was no hierarchy. It was completely flat. There was no VIP back room for the “top” speakers to sit.

We sat at round tables. We all ate meals together. We all hung out, conversed, and even saw comedy shows together.

It felt like a real community.

This was the second Archangel Mastermind event I’ve attended, and I am still blown away. I honestly learned so much in just 2 days that my system is still processing. Thank you to Giovanni Marsico for creating this event and curating and nurturing this amazing community.

My intention for this week is to pull a few of the most powerful lessons from the event and share them with you guys. 

So for today, here is a simple lesson that knocked my socks off, courtesy of my friend Marla Mattenson. 

For those of you that don’t know Marla, she is one of the world’s most respected and well-known relationship coaches. Marla and her partner Julian Colker specialize in helping entrepreneurial couples with love, intimacy and connection. 

During her breakout session, Marla casually dropped this one line that literally took my breath away. It’s something I’ve heard before, something I’ve overlooked because it’s so easy to gloss over. But the exact language Marla used in that moment allowed this piece of wisdom to finally land. 

She said: 

Happiness is *one* by-product of living a creatively expressed life. 

If we choose to venture down the path of living a creatively expressed life sometimes we encounter and experience happiness. This is wonderful, but also fleeting.

Soak it in. Appreciate it, but do not change your direction to chase or attach to this singular experience. Instead keep walking down the path towards full creative expression, knowing that happiness is only one by-product you will encounter on this journey. 

Insecurity, doubt, anger, joy, calm, love and many others will also meet you at specific moments on this journey. Treat them all as equals. Find the gift they have for you, BUT always stay committed to the journey: to explore, express and release the fullest version of yourself into the world. 

When Marla shared this concept, it instantly activated something deep inside me—a part of my being that knew this to be true and just needed a wake-up call. Marla’s wisdom gave me permission to continue pursuing my heart’s purpose, even when happiness is not currently present. What a freaking gift. 

Thank you Marla! 

Also, a huge thank you to everyone who participated and shared their fullest selves at Archangel Messenger. I love each one of you amazing humans. 

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I give you permission to play in the infinite.

I give you permission to dance with the Gods.

I give you permission to dissolve into divine nothingness.

I give you permission to take your place among the stars.

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When someone you love gets very sick, it is hard to carry on with your normal day-to-day. 

Your heart literally aches. You can’t stop thinking about them. So you break your routines and spend as much time with them as you can.

It is way too easy to disregard our day-to-day structure when something new and emotionally intense enters our lives. It doesn’t even need to be illness; it can be a new birth, a new love, a new hobby or anything new and full of emotion. 

When my aunt got really sick these past few weeks it was overwhelming. It was my first real experience with cancer and death. I went from being the most structured human I know—I literally had every moment from 5am to 11pm on my calendar planned out—to all of a sudden having nothing on my schedule but being with her and my family. 

I used structure and consistency like a safety tether that kept me from floating away. The more structure I have, the stronger the tether, and the further I could explore into the cosmos.

When my aunt passed, my daily structure felt too rigid, so I detached from my tether and began floating into the abyss.

I stopped meditating. I stopped writing. I stopped exercising. I stopped eating healthy. I stopped doing photoshoots. I stopped it all.

I began to lose my grounding and connection to this world; I was floating away. It did not feel safe. 

Thankfully it took less than a week for me to realize I was floating untethered and I reached out to a few close friends for help. They were able to find me in the cosmos and lovingly pull me back in.

Thank you Sal, thank you Lilian, and thank you Jenn. 

It is fucking hard to stay consistent in an ever-changing world, but maybe we don’t need to. Maybe it’s okay to consciously slow down, and intentionally change our plan. 

Maybe the only constant thing we can actually hold true is our commitment to staying close to our own hearts.

How can I be of service to the world?

I can write and use my voice. I can share my vision. 

I can tell honest stories, share sincere lessons, and make people laugh. 

I can take risks and make mistakes.

I can fall apart… and rebuild stronger. 

How can I be of service to the world?

I can share my love.

I can share my love story.

And I can love my story.

How can I be of service to the world?

I can care more about people.

And less about what people think of me.

And be an honourable son, brother, cousin, nephew, and father. 

I can teach by doing, and remind people how beautiful they truly are. 

How can I be of service to the world?

I can honour and respect my human. 

And take full responsibility for my mistakes. 

I can forgive everyone, all the time… including myself. 

I can fall deeply in love with God. 

And remember that my human is my soulmate.

You are finally at peace my beloved. 

If I know you well, you won’t stay in one place for long. 

I am sure you are already planning your next adventure. 

I am also sure we will meet again one day. 

Until that day… I will love you always and forever. 

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In the past 3 years I have shared over 500 posts and somehow I have never, not once, gotten a single negative comment.

Not until very recently.

(I am 100% sure people had plenty of negative thoughts about my content, but not to the point of actually publicly sharing them.)

Well, I received my first negative comment from a stranger.

Shortly after, I received 2 more. But these ones came from close family.

All 3 negative comments were about my SoftMen posts.

Many of you have asked for an update on my SoftMen project. The truth is, I have lots of photos and writing to share, but I have been scared to do so.

It was the beginning of a downward spiral. I couldn’t understand what had happened. Why was I so fragile? I had hundreds of positive responses and only 3 negative comments and all of the sudden, all my forward moving energy came to a halt.

Then after a few deep meditations and lots of journalling I realized what had happened.

Sharing photos of amazing and beautiful humans is tough to publicly disagree with. But much of the SoftMen content is inherently different than my photography business content. SoftMen brings up a lot of hidden fear that sits right under our societal masks of progressiveness. People still equate softness to weakness, people still have dormant homophobia, people still have fear of rattling the cage.

There are a lot of potential areas of tension and conflict. There is a lot of new territory and new learning for me, which means I will likely stumble and trip several times. I will look like a fool and make mistakes, but if that means I can get closer to creating a space to support and celebrate amazing, kind, generous, beautiful and powerful men, then so be it.

The level of support for me and this project has blown me away. Thank you for caring so much, and for not letting me hide. 

It’s time to continue sharing SoftMen photos, writings, podcasts and videos. Next week I will share with you some amazing photos I took of my dear friend Micha Edwards. (Here’s a sneak peek of 3 photos.) Follow the link below for the naked SoftMen podcast Micah and I recorded a few days prior to our photoshoot.

PODCAST LINK → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKHMFPLbVg&feature=youtu.be

If you like the podcast and would like to support the SoftMen project please hit Subscribe on the YouTube link.

If you’d like to be one of the SoftMen or know of a SoftMan that would be perfect for this project please visit www.softmen.art to apply.

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Sometimes people come into our lives and bring us tremendous kindness, love and safety. 

These humans leave such a profound impact on us. They teach us. They protect us. They provide for us. 

Like all things in life, these people can’t stay with us forever. When it’s time to leave, our hearts ache with feelings of helplessness that swallow us whole.

Sometimes the pain is so unbearable that we make a decision to never allow ourselves to feel this much love for another person again.

We fortify our hearts from the rest of the world and close ourselves off.

But we can also choose to stay open.

We breathe. We sit with the pain. We go all the way through, our entire body shaking in fear. Our eyes are full of tears, but we keep them open.

We choose to find a way, some miraculous way, to keep our hearts open to the world.

We choose to love, to explore and wonder, even knowing that we will once again feel pain.

Because maybe pain is simply the bill at the end of an amazing meal. Maybe it’s just proof that we experienced something marvelous and rare.

And instead of focusing on how much it cost, we can remember how delicious each plate tasted. We can remember how beautiful our beloveds looked, how much we laughed and how deeply we shared stories with one another.

Do you know what generates more profit and grows my business faster than anything else I’ve ever done? Creating and sharing social media content from my heart. But before I can dive into the writing process and let my heart sing, I focus my energy by asking myself the following 6 questions:

1. Is there a clear deadline for the post? 

Without a deadline, nothing gets done. In order to stay consistent, create a deadline for yourself and make it unmovable. 

2. Can you make the post shorter?

It’s easy to fall in love with your own ideas, but don’t get too attached to your words. The shorter your post, the clearly your message. 

3. Who are you talking to? 

You can’t speak heart-to-heart to a demographic. Your answer to this question should be a person, not an audience. To sound more conversational in your writing, picture a specific person on the receiving end of your post.

4. Are you formatting for social media? 

Avoid writing one giant blob of text and hitting publish. Break up your content into paragraphs and it’ll be much easier to read.

5. Do you have an amazing photo or graphic for your post? 

This is easier than you think. There are so many amazing tools out there, many of which are free. My favourites are Unsplash and Canva. 

6. What value does your post provide? 

• Education: Something your reader can implement in their life. 

• Entertainment: Make your readers laugh, put them on the edge of their seats, or show them something beautiful. 

• Personal Story: Bring your reader closer to your heart by sharing a very personal story about your life. 

• Celebrate: You can celebrate your wins—or better yet, celebrate your community! (This is the concept behind my Coach of the Week content.) 

• Offers: Don’t forget to share your magic with the world. If you really believe in the value of your skills and know you can be of service to others, please don’t hold back! I try to make an offer once every 2 weeks. 

Hopefully this checklist was helpful. I want you to succeed and so does the Universe. 

I was born in Iran in 1982. This was 3 years after the Islamic Revolution.

My family did not agree with the radical shift in how the country was governed. My mother was passionately against it. So my parents decided we MUST leave all of our family and friends and move halfway across the planet to Canada.

We didn't know anyone. We didn't speak the language. We didn't have much, but we had peace and safety.

Most of my family remained in Iran: hundreds of cousins, aunts, and uncles. So despite growing up fully immersed in Canadian culture, I still felt a connection to Iran.

A lot of really scary things are happening in the world lately.

A lot of escalating tension. 

How do I keep going with my privileged Canadian life when so many people are hurting? 

How do I continue taking photos of beautiful smiling humans when there is so much pain throughout the rest of the world? 

One part of me wants to take it all in and be paralyzed by my fear and hopelessness.

Another part of me wants to put a wall around my heart and not let any of it in, pretending it will all go away if I don’t think about it. 

But I have played both of these extremes before. Neither works. 

Neither serves me or my community.

Neither is my deepest truth.

Because what I really want is to help. I want to make a difference. I am not yet sure how, but I know that staying quiet is not the path forward. 

To the 176 innocent lives that were lost during this horrific tragedy, I pay my deepest respect. You did not deserve this. 

You were caught in the middle of two powerful children fighting over nonsense. 

Children with access to bombs and drones and media that will spread their hatred and lies. 

To the families of the victims, my heart aches for you. Something so precious and dear was stolen from you in an instant. When I actually give myself a moment to sit with this tragedy, it steals my breath.

I am not sure what else I can do, but I do know that I am here. I have a voice. I can fight for what’s right. And I can hold space for fellow humans who are suffering.

Hello beautiful humans.

If you have 30 seconds I could use your opinion. Can you help?

I want to make content that connects with you. Instead of guessing, this week I thought I’d ask.

If you have a sec, take a peek at the 10 ideas below and let me know which one you want to see next week.

1. Tips to help you take better self-portraits.

2. Tips on how to be more natural in front of the camera. 

3. A personal post about my relationship with Jenn.

4. More naked men photos from the SoftMen project.

5. Beautiful fashion photography photos. 

6. Tips on how I used social media to generate $15k a month last year.

7. A goofy dancing video.

8. A video tour of my studio.

9. A video about my morning routine. 

10. An intimate story about photographing famous people.

Leave me a comment with which one is your fave. Feel free to add multiple numbers if you want to see more than one.

Thanks for your support.

PS: If you have another idea of something you want me to post about next week, feel free to share the suggestion in the comments or send me a direct message.

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