The End of Praxis
Praxis is coming to an end. Not only has Praxis changed the way I learn, but it has changed my lifestyle. Going into the program I did not know what I wanted to do with my life or where I wanted to go or what I could accomplish. Praxis put me back on track and has helped me learn and create lots of valuable information that I am going to remember for the rest of my life. Here is everything I created, read, and learned over the last nine months.
What I’ve created
Phase one of Praxis was a busy one. This was learning all about the fundamentals like time management, habit building, writing, and finance. During these first two months I created my own website, three blog posts, a weekly newsletter, a calendar, a Facebook ad, and a task manager. These first two months were very important skills to learn and to have that I will need for the rest of my life and career.
Phase Two of Praxis
During phase two of Praxis I learned lots of different skills all in only thirty days. There were so many different skills I could learn. I could only choose four, but I can always go back and do the others later as well. I learned content marketing, entrepreneurship, sales, and content creation.
Content Marketing
I learned all about content marketing careers and the different skills in that field. During this module I created a landing page, social media campaign, and email marketing campaign for a business called Be Still Apparel (link). I created 15 different social media posts in less than a week. This was one of my favorite modules and I had a lot of fun learning all about content marketing.
Entrepreneurship
For this module you had to either create an online service business, an in person service business, in person product business, or an online product business. I had my idea a long time ago before even starting Praxis and it was a slow feeder stainless steel dog bowl. For this module, there was no guidance, it was all go out there and learn it yourself. So I got right to work and started learning how I can create this product. During these 30 days I learned how to register a business, got a 3D file of my product, and created a logo for my business. This is something that I am currently working on creating into reality, but It will be coming in the near future.
Sales
In this module I got a little taste for the sales experience. I learned all about the difference between a positive sales experience vs a negative one (here is the blog post on it) and the buyer's journey (BLOG POST). I created and built a sales funnel and sales sequence. I found all this information to be useful especially if one day I have my own business.
Content Creation
This was the last module I chose for phase two of Praxis and was by far my favorite one. For this module we had to go out and start posting content. So we could have started our own podcast or YouTube channel. I chose to do a YouTube channel. This is something I always wanted to do, but was always holding myself back from doing it. Once I signed up for this module I knew there was no turning back. I decided to focus my content on hockey which is one of my huge passions. The only requirements for this module was to post at least twice per week. During the course of 30 days I learned how to edit and create engaging content. This is something I am still working on and developing.
Phase Three of Praxis
Phase three of Praxis is setting a plan for the last twelve weeks to accomplish your goals. My main goals over these last twelve weeks were to land a job, learn a new editing software, work on my dog bowl business more, and form a workout plan that I do consistently. I had to create a twelve week plan to accomplish those goals. I enjoyed creating my plan and having a mapped out idea of it. If you would like to read my full analysis of my Praxis Capstone Project click here.
Here is what my twelve week plan looked like:
What I’ve Read
Praxis is a nine month program so for each month we read one book and had discussions on the book that we read. All these books I recommend that you go and read yourself because I think all these books has useful information to learn and read about that you can have in your back pocket
The Concise Mastery by Robert Greene
The Concise Mastery by Robert Greene explores the path to achieving mastery in any field. One of the reasons I like this book so much is because each chapter is a different story about a historical figure that Greene relates back to the message that he is trying to get across. Greene really hones in on the importance of persistence, mentorship, apprenticeship, and continuous learning as important elements while on the journey to mastery. Something else that Greene mentions multiple times is how important self discovery is to uncover our strengths and passions. This book was one of my favorite books that I have read.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Atomic Habits by James Clear is basically like a guide to help you form good habits and it also helps you break the bad ones. Clear dives into everything about habits like how they are formed and it goes over the roles of cues, cravings, rewards, and the importance of making habits easy for yourself. I found this to be a great book to have in my back pocket to always look back on.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is a great book that provides valuable insights on how important building positive relationships and communication are in personal and professional endeavors. This book provides a lot of techniques and I think is a great book to really think deeply on relationships you form whether it is in your personal life or professional.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is a book that contrasts the financial philosophies of two father figures: Robert Kiyosaki biological father “poor dad” who followed traditional career advice like you have to go to college to be successful and his friends dad “rich dad” who was a successful entrepreneur who went against conventional wisdom. Throughout the book he compares the financial philosophies between the two dads.
The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman is a guide to mastering business principles without going through the traditional route of business school. Kaufman covers key topics such as value creation, negotiation, decision making, and systems thinking, providing clear explanations and actionable insights. This book I found to be more of an encyclopedia about business, but highly useful because business is something I am interested in.
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel focuses and explores the relationships between human behavior and financial decisions. Housel reveals how our attitudes, biases, and emotions profoundly impact our financial outcomes. This was a great book and I thought it had a lot of valuable information.
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin was one of the most unique books I have ever read. It dives into creativity and how everyone is creative. Throughout the book Rubin provides advice for creating and developing through roadblocks. I found this to really help when thinking about my YouTube channel and creating content on there.
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight is like the story of Phil Knight's whole entrepreneurial journey when creating Nike. Throughout the story you learn about the highs and lows of his journey when trying to build Nike. There are a lot of valuable lessons in this book and I would definitely recommend you read this book.
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Chrsitensen was a great last book. Clayton Christensen shares a lot of valuable resources throughout the book for individuals looking to align their professional achievement with their personal values and have a meaningful life.
What I’ve Learned
There have been many things that I have learned over my time in Praxis, but there are two that stand out the most to me. One is putting yourself in uncomfortable situations to grow. This has been something I have struggled with for a long time and even now I am not perfect, but there has definitely been a drastic change since before I started Praxis. Because of Praxis I pushed myself into uncomfortable situations, for example, scheduling interviews with people I look up to and creating a YouTube channel. These are just some of the things that I have done while in Praxis. I scheduled these interviews to work on communication and to get better at just talking and to learn from people that I looked up to. Here are some of the people that I interviewed during my time in Praxis: Justin Maina, Issac Morehouse, Tony Blauer, Matt Beaudreau, Mitchell Earl, and Cameron Sorsby. Now onto my YouTube channel. As a teen I always wanted to start my own YouTube channel, but I let myself get in the way of that because I didn’t want my friends or family to see. Once I signed up for the content creation module for Praxis I knew I had to do it and I was really excited to get started. Since then I have been posting at least once weekly on my YouTube Channel where I post hockey content.
Two is I can learn anything I want. I believed in this false narrative for most of my life that you need a certain degree to get into the job that you want. During my time and Praxis I have found that is not the case, I mean unless you want to become a doctor or a lawyer. Nowadays, you can go out and learn anything you want on the internet. For example, you want to learn how to create engaging content to become a content marketer. Then go out on the internet and find people that create engaging content and learn what techniques they use and what skills they have and go out and learn those skills. Practice it and develop your skills and then show your work along your journey about everything you have created and learned. Then when it comes time to apply for a content marketing role, pitch yourself by creating a sample of content for that company and show all the work you have created in the past. My point is you don’t need to go to college to become a content marketer or a sales person or a copywriter all you need is the drive to learn.
My Favorites:
Now there have been many things that I have created over my time in Praxis but here are my top three down below:
Hockey YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydoyw7g6Pt8&t=140s
This is one of the videos that I was most proud of because ever since I have been using a new editing software I have had so much freedom to do creative stuff with my videos
Blog Post: https://www.erickpereznagle.com/blog-posts/case-study-of-a-self-directed-career
This is one of my favorite blog posts because it was about a person that I really look up to and it was awesome to learn more about Mr. Beaudreau.
This is my first blog post about my diet and it was one of my favorite ones to write.
What I accomplished in 9 months
Built my own website
Wrote 35 weekly newsletters
Wrote 16 Blog posts
Created 27 different YouTube content (17 YouTube videos & 10 YouTube shorts)
Gained 39 subscribers on YouTube since I started it a couple months ago
Built a 4 Facebook Ad that was used for a local business
Learned about sales and content marketing in 30 days
Built a landing page for a business
Built a social media campaign
Built a email campaign
Built a logo for a pet business that I am building
Got a 3D online model of my product
Built a sales funnel
Built a 21-day sales outreach sequence
Read more than 10 books
I have done multiple interviews
Helped build a apparel business
I have interviewed multiple people to learn from them
What comes next
Now the program is coming to an end in about a week. But I have a plan for the next twelve weeks when the program ends. Please find it down below:
I will also be continuing my weekly newsletter so if you want to continue to follow that click on newsletter.
Lastly, I am grateful for all the people that have helped me during my Praxis journey and can’t say enough good things about Praxis. It has truly been a life changing program and I can’t wait to see what happens in the future. It might be the end of one journey, but its the start of a new one as well.
