Hey y’all!
Happy Wednesday 💕 Hope your week’s off to a great start!
Today, I’m inspired to share this: if you want a new life, you can’t keep living the old one—with the same patterns, beliefs, identity, and surroundings.
This past week, I had a 1:1 coaching session with a GDT member who had just moved to a new city. She’d made a bold choice: stepping away from the traditional 9–5 to fully embrace freelancing while growing her dreams of travel, content creation, and social media.
Here’s what I noticed:
Even though she said she wanted this new life, she kept applying for jobs that looked exactly like old ones—jobs that would steal her freedom and trap her in the same patterns she was trying to leave behind.
I said, “Pause. Pull up your calendar.”
Together, we cleared everything and designed her ideal week—not her current one. We mapped out:
Morning routines to ground creativity
Dedicated blocks for client work vs. personal projects
Filming, scripting, and editing times
Networking events & creator meetups
Weekly GDT creator cohort calls
We designed it for her—not just to own her time, but to step fully into the life she wanted, aligning each choice with the future version of herself.
Then I gave her this challenge:
“For one week, show up as the person you’re becoming—live the life you want as if it’s already here.”
At first, it scared her. Years of letting others control her schedule made stepping into her future self intimidating. But even small changes shifted her mindset and energy immediately. Opportunities started aligning.
I’ve been there too. Back in 2020, I had my 30-page GDT plan ready, but I was still applying for traditional media jobs. After two months, I realized it was time to fully commit—not just to owning my time, but to becoming the creator and life I imagined, traveling, capturing stories, and filming adventures whenever I wanted.
Here’s a throwback to Hawaii, filming with the first female surfer to represent American Samoa—over four years ago.
No Matter Where You Are Now
Whether you already own your time (like me) or are still figuring it out: growth is constant. If you’re not growing, you’re stagnating. At any moment, you can refresh, realign, and take a new direction—the path to your next-level life is always open.
Take a moment to reflect:
What’s next?
How can I grow from here?
How would my ideal week, calendar, and habits reflect my future self?
For example, a millionaire entrepreneur blocks time differently than someone who “owns their schedule” but lets distractions dictate priorities. One treats every hour as a strategic investment.
Want to try this exercise? Here’s a clean calendar for inspiration—take a stab at it and see what shifts.
The Lesson: Identity Shift
Old patterns run the show until you consciously change:
How you see yourself
How you move through the world
How you show up daily
Who you surround yourself with
How you invest in yourself
Research backs this up: identity change begins with self-awareness and behavior change, leading to a new self-perception as more competent and capable. Treating the life you want as “future” keeps it out of reach. Start living it now—even in small ways—and make decisions from your future self, not your past self.
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
And here’s the other piece: you don’t have to do this alone. While it’s great to read this newsletter, get inspired to make changes in your life, I also feel called to share this quote:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
True growth doesn’t happen in isolation. When you accept help, you invite the right people, resources, and opportunities in — and every time you say yes to support, you’re telling the universe: I’m ready for more. I’m ready to level up.
Your Invitation to Go Together
The Global Dream Team 6-Week Creator Cohort is your chance to:
Stop overthinking and finally do the thing
Cut through idea overload and focus
Build systems that actually stick
Grow creative work without burning out
Connect with a global community on the same journey
You’ll also learn from top coaches:
Madeline Miller – Clarifies next steps, creative voice, and values
Meghan Wieske – Scales creators & entrepreneurs from $10K → $150K/month
Bethany Kumsuz – Helps reclaim 10+ hours/week and finish projects consistently
Hayley – YouTube strategist with 12 years at YouTube & Google, helping creators grow audiences and monetization
Kickoff call: Sunday at 1 PM PST (convert to your time zone if needed!)
This could be you with this time block on your calendar 😉
Register here - I’ll email you with next steps and we can also chat through anything. (few spots left)
My DMs are also open—I’ve been chatting with a handful of y’all and happy to talk through any questions or hesitations here too.
Meet Two Guest Coaches
✨ Bethany — Time Management & Productivity Coach
Most creators struggle to reclaim time and focus. On average for creators and workers:
82% don’t have a time management system
68% don’t get enough uninterrupted focus time
Bethany teaches energy-based scheduling that works with your natural flow, using the STEP Framework, Eisenhower Matrix and “eat the frog.” Outcomes:
Reclaim 10+ hours/week
Turn scattered ideas into finished projects
Build systems that stick
🎥 Hayley — YouTube Growth Strategist
Hayley spent 12 years at YouTube and Google, helping creators scale audiences and impact. Her client portfolio drives 200M+ views per month, and her strategies have influenced ~100B total views across short- and long-form content. She’s helped creators grow from thousands to millions of subscribers (e.g., Jaden Sprinz: 3M → 12M; Plan With Laur: 12K → 32K in 6 months).
In this live, personalized session, bring your channel, analytics, and questions—Hayley will:
Give tailored guidance on your biggest growth challenges
Provide live feedback on videos, thumbnails, and content strategy
Share proven strategies top creators use (one client doubled their CTR after testing)
Walk away with clear, actionable next steps for your channel, designed specifically for you—no cookie-cutter advice.
Top-tier YouTube growth strategies, now accessible to you.
Your Next Step
Cohort starts: Sunday, August 24th
Doors close: Friday at 11:59 PM PST
Six weeks of clarity, accountability, and momentum—not another year of “someday.”
With lots of love, bold moves, creative fire, and future-self energy,
Ysabel
P.S.
Imagine your life six weeks from now—project finished, systems in place, creative confidence on fire. Stop waiting. Start living it now.