Momentum System 

Click this link to open up the Momentum System Google Calendar!

Then click the “+Google Calendar” button to add this calendar to your own Google Calendar.

To add to Apple iCal or Outlook, copy this address and paste it into your calendar app.

• In iCal, look under File > New Calendar Subscription.
• In Outlook, look under File > Account Settings > Account Settings. And then look for the Internet Calendars tab.

You can also refer to the program overview listed below at any time: 

Program rhythm

• Oct-Dec:
  • 30-min Roadmapping meetings with each member in October
  • Focus on curriculum and establishing momentum
  • 2-week break at the end of December
• Jan
  • MS Group coaching sessions
  • 30-min Milestone calls can be taken starting in January, through March (these can be combined into a longer session if you have more than one)
  • 30-min Early Decision bonus meetings can be taken starting in January, through March
  • Async support in group
• Feb-Mar: ACC access, follow-up support in group
  • Async support in group
  • ACC monthly group coaching
  • 30 min bonus meetings can be taken Jan - March

Weekly live "Lesson Brief" videos (15-20 minutes) highlighting key points from each module

10-10:30 Tuesdays [Oct 1-Dec 17]

(More details on Lesson Briefs two toggles down!)

Momentum System Group Coaching and Implementation Labs

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86480025728?pwd=FJoCNyiY6KD28TS0Z8HbhUODVUeSHV.1

11-12 Tuesdays [16 sessions]

Oct 1: Welcome and getting started

Oct 8: Implementation Lab: Collect

Oct 15: Group Coaching

Oct 22: Implementation Lab: Decide

Oct 29: Group Coaching

Nov 5: [US election day] Implementation Lab: Act

Nov 12: Group Coaching

Nov 19: Implementation Lab: Reflect

Nov 26: Group Coaching

Dec 3: Quarterly Planning

Dec 10: Group Coaching

Dec 17: Group Coaching

Dec 24: OFF

Dec 31: OFF

Jan 7: Group Coaching

Jan 14: Group Coaching

Jan 21: Group Coaching

Jan 28: Planning session/Wrapup

Momentum System Coaching Calls are held every Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET

In addition to your calendar, you can find all the upcoming events under the Meetups tab in the ACC! It's OK if you're not sure you can make it or if you end up missing a session. I'm not doing a head-count! Go ahead and sign up so you have all the info and get reminders!

Members who RSVP for the Meetup will receive the following reminders:

• Email notification 3 days in advance
• Push notification 1 hour in advance
• Email notification when the Meetup starts

What if I miss a coaching call or want to watch it again?

Video Archive:

Recordings of all of the Momentum System Group Coaching Sessions are available here.

Audio Archive via your podcast app:

Want to listen to audio recordings of the coaching sessions on-the-go? Make sure you're subscribed to the private feed on your fav podcast app! You got a private link to subscribe to the feed when you joined the ACC.

If you're not subscribed to the private podcast feed yet, check your email for an email from "Jessica Abel (via Hello Audio)" with the subject line, "Your audio access: The CFW: Momentum System Coaching Call Archive."

You can get access directly from there!

Asking Questions

You can submit question in advance by posting them in the Momentum System group feed and tagging me. If you’re not able to be at the session live, I can address your questions and you can come back to the recording to hear my answer. You’re also welcome to ask questions live in the chat!

One of the key elements of building a steady, sustainable pace for your projects is taking a few moments to reflect and make decisions on a regular rhythm. I strongly recommend Daily Top 3s, of course, but a Weekly Reflection is also incredibly useful to realign and stay connected with your intentions and plans (as well as your reality!).

I’ve designed this weekly accountability check-in in as lightweight and supportive manner as possible to help scaffold your progress. It’s got 2 main steps for you, then one for me.

1. Reflect + set weekly goals
2. Post your reflections
3. I respond to your post and/or we discuss in coaching.

What’s a Weekly Reflection?

A Weekly Reflection is a powerful practice that will help you learn from your successes and your challenges in the week just past, and use that to recalibrate your expectations for the coming week.

How do I do a Weekly Reflection?

There’s training for Weekly Reflections in the Reflect Phase unit, which you will get to. But you don’t need training to get started! We have put together a short form that you can use to briefly think about your week and do some simple planning, and there’s a weekly live meeting to help you actually do it!

Your Weekly Reflection Form

Don’t worry about getting it “right”! Even getting it very “wrong”—for example, setting an unachievable Top 3, and then realizing at the end of the week that you didn’t do them is incredibly useful and instructive…and thus is really getting it right after all.

(Of course, it doesn’t feel great. I get that. But that’s why you’re here, to get my help to more closely align your ideas with reality, and that’s exactly what I’ll do).

Weekly Reflection reminders will go out on Fridays.

• Accountability meetings are on Sundays. Attend live to check in and have structure for your weekly review, make friends, and get support.
• OR do your weekly reflection solo, on your schedule, and post your top 3 and reflections in the Accountability circle thread.
• If you post your Weekly Reflection and Weekly Top 3 by end of day on Monday, I’ll get in there and comment on your post to give you some motivation and help answer questions.
• Posting your Weekly Reflection is also an awesome way to get more out of coaching. Because questions WILL come up, and I can help you with those during Tuesday’s coaching session.

Lesson Briefs are short (10-20 minutes is my intention) sessions on each of the 12 core Creative Focus Workshop modules. They are open to anyone enrolled in the CFW (not only Momentum System members).

What to expect:

I will briefly touch on:

• what you’ll find in a given module,
• what the most important points are,
• and where potential questions or speedbumps may arise.
• I’ll discuss timeframe for a minimal completion of the lessons in the module,
• and if there are relevant Deeper Dives, I’ll talk about when and why you might want to do those.
• Then, I’ll open up to questions.

How to prepare:

You should feel free to come as you are, whether or not you’ve started, or even looked at, the module.

However, if you have worked on any part of the module, this is also a good chance to ask targeted questions about what came up for you.

Anyone can ask questions at these sessions, but questions should be on the lessons and module covered by that specific brief, not general questions about creative practice.

Where they are and how to join:

Lesson Briefs are “lives”. Not Zoom calls. I will go live INSIDE the course platform.

You can join by clicking "Join this week's Lesson Brief" in the sidebar of the course homepage. OR by clicking the red button in the Lesson Briefs module.

You can also join directly by clicking here. 

Yes! There will be replays!

After the Lesson Brief is over, it will be immediately posted to the module in question for replay access.

On your path to completing your project or launching your business, you’ll reach certain milestones. Think of them as indicators that you’re making progress. We want to help you celebrate these wins! Acknowledging your progress plays a big part in building your confidence and strengthening your processes.

We also want to help you reflect and learn from what you’ve done.

That is why when you reach the steps outlined below, you’ll qualify for a 1:1 30-minute call with me to work with you on learning from your current milestone and setting up your steps to reach the next one.

Here's how it works:

• You’ll qualify for a 30 min 1:1 call with me each time you hit one of two milestones!
  1. setting up and using a visual project tracker for 2 months
  2. hitting self-defined goal in 4 months
• Milestone calls can be taken between January and March, 2025, and if you hit more than one, you can combine them for a longer session!

To schedule your milestone call, email me at [email protected] with a photo or screenshot to prove you've hit your goal, and I'll send you a scheduling link. 

You can increase the cohort vibe and gain more momentum on your own work and/or completing the CFW lessons when you show up for other peer-led sessions during the week.

You can bring CFW lessons or your own work to any of the 3 regular peer-led sessions, Creativity Co-Working, Tidy Tuesdays (this one doesn’t have to be about tidying, but it’s a great way to get admin you’ve been avoiding finished!), or Open Studio.

It’s also a great idea to show up for Annette and Shelley’s Sunday Accountability, and/or use the accountability thread in that circle to post your intentions for the week and have a friendly check-in with people who will cheer you on.

More on Weekly Reflections and how to get the most out of a weekly accountability practice to come. I'll discuss it in our first Welcome meeting and follow up with an email next week so you don't get hit with too much at a time.

You can access the live room under the Meetups tab in the ACC. The live is always on; you can join anytime and chat with other community members. The Live Room is a great place to set up accountability meetings, co-working, and coffee chats!

The following tools are available in a Live Room:

• Screenshare
• Start breakout groups
• Ask people to turn on their video
• Chat in-line
• Send emojis

You can’t record your session unless a community Host is logged into the meeting.

If you’d like to set up a meetup and invite others ahead of time, you can post a message in the ACC feed and arrange directly, or reach out to us at [email protected] and we’ll help facilitate creating an event RSVP post.

Simplify to Amplify Roundtable

Join Jessica on the 1st Wednesday of every month at 12 pm ET for a live strategy session for creative pros and entrepreneurs.

Bring whatever creative career and business questions you’re grappling with, and we’ll talk about what’s working, what’s not working, and what to do next!

Sign-up and submit your questions here.

Autonomous Creative Business Mastermind Coaching Call

The Autonomous Creative Business Mastermind Coaching is exclusive to ACBM members and takes place on the 3rd Thursday of every month at 1 pm ET. You can RSVP and submit work for the next call here. Replays can be found in the Autonomous Creative Incubator course under “ACBM Coaching Call Archive.”

ACC Group Coaching

The ACC Group Coaching Call is an Autonomous Creative Community exclusive event hosted by Jessica on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 2 pm ET.

You can submit questions here, and Jessica will answer them live.

Creativity Co-working w/ Dorothea

Need support getting your creative work done? Join Dorothea Deley’s co-working group on Mondays at 8:30 a.m. PT (11:30 ET).

Here’s what you can expect from these sessions:

• Use the Pomodoro technique, working in 25-minute blocks with 5-minute breaks, completing 3 Pomodoros each session
• Set your One Goal for the upcoming week & check in on how last week's One Goal went
• Support one another’s creative work & honor each other's working style
• Participate in a safe space for people to share about health/personal/other challenges as they relate to getting our creative work done

This session is hosted on Skype. To join, message Dorothea your Skype handle and she’ll add you to the next call.

Tidy Tuesday w/ Maggie

Tidy Tuesday is a weekly co-working event at 2 pm BST (9 am ET) hosted by Maggie Winnall.

The purpose of Tidy Tuesday is to help you maintain or establish an optimal environment in which to do your work. Each session starts with quick intros and intentions, followed by two 40-minute organizing sessions. RSVP here.

Open Studio w/ Michi & Maggie

On Thursday at 2 pm BST (9 am ET), Michi Mathias and Maggie Winnall host Open Studio co-working. This is a mics-on co-working session, where you can work quietly or chat, or both. (This is different from many co-working sessions where the expectation is muting your mic during work sessions, then unmuting on breaks). Mics-on means friendly companionship while doing your work…which means it’s especially good if you do handwork of various kinds, like sketching, stitching, painting, sculpting, etc.

Join this virtual shared studio for company, friendly chats, and accountability while you work on your creative projects!

Open Studio is hosted in our ACC Live Room. RSVP here.

How to set up a study-buddy or accountability partnership

You've got two options:

First, if you've met someone in the ACC that you'd like to partner up with, DM them and ask! Most people here are interested in accountability, and are likely to say yes. Then, you can choose to follow the below formats or use them as a guide for your own approach to your meetings.

Running an accountability call

Why partner for accountability?

Talking about what you’ve done, your approach, what worked (and what didn’t) is a shortcut to more clarity.

Accountability partnerships are designed to make taking the time to reflect on our actions a regular part of your week.

We partner for two reasons:

1. It’s super easy to talk ourselves out of taking the time to reflect on our actions when it's solo.
2. When reflecting alone, it’s easy to get lost in our own thoughts and self-criticism. Having someone there alongside us helps us stay on track!

The structure you’ll build as buddies (how often you meet, how you talk about your results and your actions) and the actual meetings ensure you’ll build the habit of reviewing your week (and making measurable progress).

How to set up the partnership

Your first session with your buddy (or buddies) should be about defining expectations and format.

Expectations

Define the following:

• How do we meet? Skype, Zoom, Discord, Voxer, phone, email, text, etc.

• How often will you meet?

  This will be highly dependent on your availability. Weekly calls are great but not always useful if, for example, you have limited time to dedicate to your creative work every week. Some people prefer 5 minute check ins!

• For how long will you meet?

  Make sure to have enough time for each buddy to benefit and set a clear duration. Keep track of time (using timers as needed) and respect the time boundary you set.

  We’ve seen this work best when each person has 5-10 minutes, max. Please also decide how you’ll manage the time and who will be responsible for timing each person.

• **What goal do you want to be held accountable for?**Notice the singular. We recommend that you work on one goal at a time. This will help with your progress and will keep the calls more streamlined.

• What is one thing you tend to do when you “get in your own way”? Do you procrastinate, stall out, disappear, or go into victim mode? Have a conversation about this.

• Ask your partner: What do you want me to do if I see you getting in your own way? Share with your AP what you want them to do if you get off track and slip into old patterns of self sabotage.

• Be clear on the type of work you want to do together

  Although the buddy system we suggest is structured around regular check ins about your work, you could decide to add some coworking sessions, strategic planning sessions (monthly and/or quarterly), mutual work review sessions (where you comment on each other’s work), brainstorming sessions, etc.

• Choose a format

  Formats are like checklists for meetings. You’ll define what will happen, how long it will last, and how you’ll transition from one part to the other.

  For example:

  • Welcoming each other, warm up chat - 5 minutes

• Buddy A goes through the review process:

  • Quick factual review of work done since last meeting - 5 minutes
  • Share and celebrate wins - 5 minutes
  • What worked and why? - 3 minutes
  • What didn’t work and why? - 3 minutes
  • What will you do differently or double down on based on these insights? 4 minutes
  • Next steps - 1 minute.
  • Break - 5 minutes

• Change roles and repeat.

  Feel free to define what each section means to you.

You’ll probably need to experiment a bit a first. Allow adjustments during the first few calls until you find the rhythm that works for you.

How to hold your partners accountable

During your time together, you and your buddy will alternate roles. One will talk, the other will listen. Both roles are essential and each need to respect certain principles to serve their purpose best.

Running an accountability call

As the talker, stay on track, be vulnerable, and make an effort

1. Stay on track

   Learn to focus on the facts: what you did, what worked, what didn’t work, and how you can use that experience going forward.

   Your mission is to catch yourself when your mind tries to derail you from actually learning from your experience and get back on track.

2. Be vulnerable

   Lessons come when you’re willing to expose what you feel less comfortable about. Maybe the reason you didn’t work as much as you planned last week is because you’re afraid of making a fool of yourself. Maybe your actions didn’t bring the results you wanted and you feel ashamed. Or you’re doubting yourself and don’t quite know what to do with that so you don’t want to bring it up.

   Whatever it is, be assured that acknowledging what you’re experiencing will give you insights on your processes, your journey and your relationship to your craft and your goals.

   Be brave enough to shed light on the vulnerable parts of your week. That’s not a permission slip to overshare. You still need to stay on track: remember what you’re here for, what you’re looking to make progress at.

3. Make the effort

   This work is hard. Looking at your actions with objectivity, not giving in to harsh self-criticism, and pulling at the threads of insights to find the lessons behind your experiences…that all requires effort. You’ll need to master your mind’s voice in order to distill the valuable information from all that chatter.

   Make the most of your time in the speaker’s role and get your brain working. Stretch your thinking, look for the not-so-obvious insights, ask yourself difficult questions and look for new answers.

Your role as a listener is to hold space for your buddy to articulate their progress and hear themselves.

Your responsibility as the listener is to keep track of time, keep your buddy on track and mirror their insights back to them.

1. Keep track of time

   Your buddy needs to focus deeply on their review. By being time master, you allow them to keep their attention where it matters. You also can remind them of the remaining time to help them stay on track with a (reasonable) sense of urgency (nothing focuses attention than realizing time is fleeting)

2. Keep your buddy on track

   Digressions make accountability calls less useful. The speaker, because of the work they’re doing, is prone to get lost in their thoughts. You are allowed to gently interrupt your buddy and ask: is this what really matters?

   Other useful questions you can ask:

   • What did you get done this week and why is this awesome?
   • What didn’t get you get done and why?
   • What are your top 3 priorities for next week?
   • Do you have any stuck spots or challenges?
   • What else?
   • What insight can you derive from this?
   • How does this relate to your goal?
   • How will it change your actions?
   • How is this a problem?

3. Mirror insights back to them

   It’s not always easy to hear ourselves when we’re reviewing our work. That’s where buddies can be the most useful. When you hear something important, feel free to interject by mirroring back what you just heard: “So you [repeat their exact words to them]”.

   Example:

   Speaker: “It’s been a tough week, I was all over the place. I made progress on my art but I worried so much about...

   Listener: You made progress on your art?

   Speaker: Yes, I was able to spend a few hours on my piece and got really into it for a while. I figured out the solution to that problem I was telling you about last week. It’s not finished, because I now have other problems to solve...

   Listener: You figured out the solution to that problem, that’s awesome!

   Speaker: It is, right?”

   The point is not for you to dwell on anything—nor is it to force your buddy’s attention anywhere—but to echo their progress and insights, because they might not recognize that they’re being insightful until you mirror it back!

   You’ll notice in the example that the role of the listener is just to echo and trust that their buddy will catch the echo.

   This will build up in time. Don’t expect fireworks to light up the sky after your first session. Trust that it will slowly change the way your buddy perceives their work and notice how their language evolves over time.

Have fun!

Serious work doesn’t mean you can’t have fun doing it. In order to keep your accountability calls going, you need to derive both meaning and pleasure from them. The meaning will come naturally from the insights and progress these calls will allow.

The pleasure comes from the friendships you’ll build. Ask yourself how you can be helpful, friendly, and overall a good buddy for your partners and you’ll find they come with a deeper purpose than merely reviewing your work’s results.