Taku's Blog++: Sales don't get pushed up — sales rise on their own. Here are the 3 keys to making that happen…

Check out Takumi’s NEW English youtube channel🎵

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https://www.youtube.com/@takuway

Wow — it's almost over! Please don't miss it!

Extras

Calling for those who want to participate as extras

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山﨑拓巳60歳の挑戦！劇場映画化プロジェクト。最初で最後のクラウド・ファンディングです。50年ごしの夢を叶えにいくために、みんなと一緒に作りたい。

camp-fire.jp

Seta-san shares How to run a crowdfunding

campaign that gets everyone rooting for you

Oracle cards are back too!

From Ikeda Takamasa's newsletter

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"Results are created by choices. 　

Choices are made based on priorities."

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https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSHLxRFoc/

Research on the gut microbiome of athletes is truly fascinating. To cut to the chase: recent studies have revealed that many athletes have higher levels of butyrate-producing bacteria ("rakusan-kin") — particularly a type called Veillonella — in their gut compared to the general population. Here's a summary of the main reasons why butyrate-producing bacteria in athletes' "poop" are getting so much attention.

1. Improved Energy Efficiency and Endurance

Butyrate-producing bacteria break down dietary fiber to produce a short-chain fatty acid called "butyrate."

Energy source: Butyrate serves as a primary energy source for intestinal cells and also plays a role in whole-body energy metabolism.
Lactic acid conversion: Certain bacteria (such as Veillonella) feed on lactic acid that builds up during exercise and convert it into "propionate" and "butyrate." This may create an remarkable cycle of turning fatigue byproducts into energy.

2. Powerful Anti-Inflammatory Effects

Intense training causes oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, but butyrate has the ability to suppress inflammation.

Recovery: A well-balanced gut environment with high butyrate levels is expected to speed up recovery from muscle damage.

3. Maintaining Immune Function

It's often said that "athletes are prone to catching colds (because intense training lowers immunity)," but butyrate-producing bacteria help activate immune cells (regulatory T cells).

Conditioning: By strengthening the gut wall (barrier function), they help build a body that stays healthy even under harsh conditions.

How to Increase Your "Athlete Bacteria"

Research into "whether transplanting stool from top athletes could boost performance" is underway, but the steps we can take in daily life are simple.

Feed them: Actively consume water-soluble dietary fiber that butyrate bacteria love — seaweed, mochi barley, burdock root, etc.
Add the bacteria: Make use of fermented foods like nukazuke (rice bran pickles) and digestive supplements containing butyrate bacteria (such as Miyarisan).
Moderate exercise: There is actually data showing that "exercise itself" increases butyrate-producing bacteria in the gut.

You could say that "golden poop" truly is the culmination of daily effort and a healthy diet!

I wanna go see this〜

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

https://share.google/61Y0F6i1gTPBb5pxM

Fujimoto-san's Sushi Party —

here are some words from those who attended～

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I'm so glad I made the trip all the way from Oita. I had such wonderful learnings.

Thank you everyone!

From Fujimoto-san's talk during the Q&A:

1. Keep business simple.

Revenue isn't something you "raise"

— revenue rises⤴️

The 3 key points:

① Spend your time on making the customer in front of you happy.

② Spend your time on making the teammates who work with you happy.

③ Have you found ways to improve the work you're doing now for the sake of 1 and 2?

These 3 things are the essence of business.

Write these 3 things on paper just twice a day — even 5 minutes is fine.

Do that, and the speed at which you get what you seek will accelerate.

2. What does intuition mean to Fujimoto-san?

　Intuition always links to desire. 　

The more time you spend imagining your own desires, the more that becomes your map.

People who carry this map with them naturally day by day will find intuition raining down on them effortlessly. A person's life can only open up along the path where desire and information resonate.

From a question by someone who works as a trader — something important that applies to other work as well:

The energy you put out has a huge impact, so write down the names of people you know (family, friends, etc.), decide on your priorities, increase the things that earn you a "thank you" (ありがとう) from those people, and write down every "thank you" you receive each day on paper. Do that, and your current worries will disappear^_^ Collect small thank-yous.

That's roughly how it went — I'll re-read the book📕 that should be arriving today and keep studying.

Thank you so much😊

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And from another participant…

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【Today's Takeaways】

① The reason behavior doesn't change is not willpower — it's the depth of awareness.

② Over-categorizing things can be what makes life hard.

③ Results are born from the accumulation of "desire, distinction, and clarity" combined with good work.

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【Conclusion】

The big theme that ran through today's entire conversation was: "Results and actions are determined not by grit and willpower alone, but by the 'depth of awareness,' 'how we make distinctions,' and 'how we show up each day.'"

What stood out most was the perspective that

"thinking you understand" and "truly understanding" are two different things.

【Evidence】

Not being able to do what you know you should isn't weak willpower — it's shallow awareness "I know I should do it, but I can't." "I know I shouldn't do it, but I do it anyway."

This isn't simply a lack of grit — it's because you haven't truly grasped what will happen as a result.

The learning here was that it's important to imagine far ahead: "What will happen as a result of this action?"

Going in circles alone is easy — that's why coaches and mentors matter

When people think only within their own thoughts, they tend to loop back to the same place. That's why having a

Coach

Mentor

Someone who can see you from the outside

helps deepen awareness.

The conversation touched on how "the more successful someone is, the more likely they are to have a coach" — a reminder that bringing in an outside perspective is effective for growth.

People unconsciously live by "distinctions"

What was especially interesting in the second half was the idea that people are always making distinctions:

Ally / Enemy Good / Bad Fear / Pleasure

For example, the moment you say "You're on my side, right?"

you've unconsciously created the concept of an "enemy" too.

In other words — while distinctions are sometimes necessary, making too many can cause you to create suffering for yourself and breed conflict.

Fear-based motivation doesn't need to be rejected either

Thinking too hard that "fear-based motivation is bad and you have to be driven by pleasure" just becomes another source of suffering.

Today's discussion offered this framing:

Fear-based motivation is okay.

Pleasure-based motivation is okay.

What matters isn't judging either as right or wrong, but being able to hold both as options.

This was a surprisingly reassuring perspective.

To get results, balance "desire, distinction, and clarity"

In looking at how results-producing people think, three lenses came up:

What does this person want? (Desire)

What distinctions are they making? (Distinction)

How are they currently handling things? (Clarity)

It felt like true advice isn't about adding something new — it's about removing unnecessary distinctions, reorganizing, and aligning someone's thinking toward their own desires.

The essence of business is not "selling" but "sales rising"

The business discussion was also very memorable.

Revenue isn't something you force yourself to "raise" — it's something that naturally "rises" as a result of doing good work.

What matters for that is: Making the customer in front of you happy.

Making the people you work with happy. Finding ways to improve your own work for those two things. Keep cycling through these three. Simple, but profound.

Intuition is connected to desire

The talk about "intuition" at the end was also memorable.

Rather than intuition being something that suddenly arrives from nowhere — it's something that finds the right information, people, and opportunities for those who hold their desires clearly and stay conscious of what they want to become and do.

In other words: To sharpen intuition, first clarify your desires.

This felt very true.

【Notes】

Today covered a huge range of topics, but what they all had in common was a stance of:

Not directing blame inward, but reviewing your habitual thought patterns and the way you make distinctions, and more naturally connecting them to results and action.

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【Practice Edition: Hints for Bringing the Learning into Daily Life】

How to specifically apply the "depth of awareness" and "way of making distinctions" from the first half into everyday life and business. Here are the more personal and practical learnings that emerged from last night's passionate conversation.

1. Gratitude changes the quality of your energy

When things aren't going well, we tend to blame ourselves — "What am I lacking?" "Why can't I do this?" — and rush toward learning to fill the gap. But when you move from that energy of anxiety and urgency, the results become unstable too.

Solution: Collect small "thank-yous"
Write down the names of people you know, and consciously take actions that earn a "thank you" from them. Taking just 5 minutes a day to reflect on what small "thank-yous" you received can dramatically shift your state of mind.

2. Steps for making "what you want to do" and "reality" coexist

For the struggle of "I want to take on a new challenge while keeping my current job, but I can't seem to move forward" — there was a remarkably clear prescription.

Start with 20% (or even 10%): Rather than trying to change 100% all at once and getting stopped by the "fear of losing income," start by doing what you love at low risk first.
Specifically dismantle the "reasons you can't": For example: sales drop when I leave the shop → Why? → Because there's no staff who can cook → Add "staff training" and "creating a manual" to your plan. Breaking anxiety down into "concrete challenges" and tackling them one by one is the shortest route to realizing your desire.

3. Intuition descends onto the "map" of desire

Intuition is not a mysterious power — it is "the resonance of desire and information." When you regularly speak your desires out loud and keep thinking about what you want to do, a "map" takes shape in your mind. It's because that map exists that the ideas and opportunities you need can be caught as "intuition."

4. What I learned from the "humanity" and "way of being" of successful people

Seeing Takumi-san and Fujimoto-san up close this time, what struck me most was the sheer brilliance of their "way of being."

Fear that comes with challenge exists for everyone: Even someone like Takumi-san gets nervous about crowdfunding and unread messages. Seeing that very human quality — while still approaching challenges as "learning" to enjoy — was deeply encouraging.
"Someone the era won't overlook": When Takumi-san described Fujimoto-san that way, it sent a shiver through me. The positive longing of "I want to become someone people say that about" is exactly what becomes the driving force for what's next.
Graceful presence in small things: Eating food at its most delicious — while it's still hot. The realization that a person's "freshness" and "energy" lives in each small everyday action was something I felt deeply.

【Finally: Stop judging yourself】

What all of today's conversations had in common was the stance of "don't blame yourself." There's no need to deny the part of you that acts from anxiety or fear, or the part that ends up making distinctions and creating enemies. What matters is not judging that as right or wrong — but objectively noticing "ah, this is the distinction I'm making right now" and opening up new options.

Let go of unnecessary distinctions, reorganize your thinking, and keep building up small efforts to make the person in front of you happy. Do that, and revenue — and life's results — won't need to be forced "up." They will naturally "rise." It was a wonderful time that left me truly convinced of that.