Don’t touch those $&%#@ brakes!

I was fifty feet up a sheer cliff face near Anaconda, Montana, having unwittingly followed my husband up a wall ride at a mountain bike park.

The trail so far had been a nice blue square situation (intermediate rider) with some optional black diamond (death wish rider) features mixed in. My husband, Robert, was taking the well-signed black options while I was enjoying myself on the blue route.

Until.

Near the bottom of the mountain, I was in the groove. I’d been so focused on Robert’s rear wheel that I didn’t realize I’d followed him on a black diamond route until I was flying full-speed up the side of the cliff.

Oh. My. God.

My first instinct was to bail.

Stop the bike and get off, right?

Just slam on the brakes—though in my minds eye I could see the result: me and my bike tumble-sliding our way down the cliff face to skid into the chunky gravel below.

My fingers twitched for the brake levers. And, through my panic, I suddenly realized a voice inside my head was screaming for me to do the complete opposite.

Don’t touch those $&%#@ brakes, Jessie! Don’t touch them.

The voice continued, giving me clear, step-by-step instructions:

You know what to do.

• Look where you want to go.
• Point your bike downhill.
• Push your weight all the way back until you’re practically sitting on the rear wheel.

And don’t touch those $&%#@ brakes.

Robert told me later that he’d come to a stop at the bottom of the wall ride, grinning at how fun it had been, only to realize I wasn’t on the blue trail like he’d expected.

He realized in horror that I had followed him on the wall ride. He spotted me just as I reached the apex.

And his heart sank through his feet.

This bike park was out in the middle of nowhere, and we had no cell service. The nearest hospital was at least an hour away, in Butte. Robert was picturing frantic EMTs with stretchers. A helicopter rescue. He was rehearsing what he was going to tell my parents.

And then, to his amazement, I looked where I wanted to go, pointed the bike downhill, pushed my weight back over the rear wheel, and rode the trail out.

I recall holding on for dear life, trusting the bike and trusting the voice that calmly chanted: Don’t touch the brakes. Don't touch the brakes.

I trusted it through the descent. Through the chunky gravel runout. All the way until I skidded to a halt in front of Robert and promptly fell over from shock.

“I thought I was going to die,” I said when I could speak again.

“I thought you were going to die,” he agreed.

He helped me untangle myself from my bike and stand back up. “That was super impressive, though.”

I think a lot about what it felt like to be at the apex of that wall ride: that exhilarating, horrifying feeling of being in way over my head. That split second of terror before instincts and intuition took over and guided me back down to safety.

Running a business feels like that sometimes.

There are plenty of moments of OMG—how did I get here? And how do I get out alive???

In those moments, I listen to the voices of the experts, colleagues, and business buddies that I’ve surrounded myself with.

They tell me to lean into my momentum. To trust myself.

And to not touch those $&%#@ brakes.

This week, a good handful of the experts and biz mentors I’ve come to trust over the past year have put their best resources together in a bundle—so if you want their voices in your head, too, now's your chance!

​The Fast Track bundle is a collection of 26 proven traffic strategies for coaches, course creators, and online experts who want to increase visibility, attract ready-to-buy leads, and grow their business to multiple 6-figures and beyond.

There’s something for everyone.

• Jen Liddy has an audio training on why you’re getting seen, but not chosen.
• Laura Jawad has an AI-Backed SEO Assist Kit that I will definitely be checking out.
• Holly Haynes teaches you how to sell without being chained to social media.
• The fabulous Casey Lightbody shares her exact method for pitching partnerships.
• Keenya Kelly helps you stop traffic with a library of 400 viral hooks.

And more!

(Yours truly has a resource in that bundle, too. ;)

Believe me—these are all people whose voice you want in your head when you’re stuck at the top of Business Mountain and trying to make the next move.

​Grab this bundle, trust your instincts, and don’t touch those brakes.

You’ve got this, friend.

Jessie

P.S.

My resource is the No Rules Book Organizer, a workbook I developed for the book sprint I ran a few weeks back.

It’s a place to track your book’s core idea, your reader, your central promise, and the spine that holds everything together. It’s your choose-your-own-way guide through the writing process, with sections for your messy Magpie Mode brain-dump, your narrative outline, your zero draft notes, your revision plan, and more.

People in the sprint loved it, so I’ll be putting it up for sale soon—but if you want to grab your copy for free, you can do that now as part of the Fast Track bundle.

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