Your Energy Signature
Module 1, “Welcome + Initial Ideas”, free to watch for 72 hours.
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About 51 minutes, in 22 short segments. You’ll have 72 hours from the moment you first open it. If you buy the course, this module comes with it, along with all the others, and you keep them for life.
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Inside this module
- ✓Welcome to Energy Signature!
- ✓At the start of the course... what do you think Energy Signature means?
- ✓What do you think is unique about your energy signature?
- ✓Feeling and Thinking / Heart vs Head (?) as we discover our energy signature...
- ✓In contrast with the average person, what’s unique about you / your energy signature?
- ✓What's easier for you than for others?
- ✓How are you similar to your kindred spirits... what does that say about your collective energy signature?
- ✓Who has strong energy signature and what is it like?
- ✓🤗 Ask your supportive network to tell you about your energy signature...
What people said
“This course is a very unique opportunity to carve out the time to explore the complex yet crucial topic of Energy Signature. The structure of the questions that George will ask you makes it doable. I highly recommend this course!”
“I asked "Who am I when I'm not trying to be someone else?"...The responses I received brought me to tears … What a beautiful gift.”
“Something that just opened for me…I’ve never considered my energy signature as a real thing that actually matters. And yet it is the Essence of who I Am. And I’ve never really taken real responsibility for it.”
“You know you show up in a unique way in the marketplace. But what if you truly understood what George Kao calls your "energy signature" and could use that understanding to design your business so that it naturally draws those who resonate with you? This is that course.”
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Module 1’s Lessons:
- Welcome to Energy Signature! + Our community values4 min
- At the start of the course... what do you think Energy Signature means?4 min
- What do you think is unique about your energy signature?5 min
- Feeling and Thinking / Heart vs Head (?) as we discover our energy signature...4 min
- In contrast with the average person, what’s unique about you / your energy signature?4 min
- What's easier for you than for others?5 min
- How are you similar to your kindred spirits... what does that say about your collective energy signature?1 min
- Who has strong energy signature and what is it like?4 min
- 🤗 Ask your supportive network to tell you about your energy signature...6 min
- 😬 Resistant to asking your audience?5 min
- Practice your observation of ES and take notes in the next few weeks...5 min
- "Energy Signature" vs. "Brand"?5 min
Welcome to Energy Signature! + Our community values
Video · 4 min
Key points from the video
- Opens by admitting, half-joking that students shouldn't quit over it, that he isn't sure what the term fully captures — frames not-knowing as intellectually honest rather than a flaw, since he argues truth and knowledge are always still being acquired.
- Explicitly refuses any single defining lens (colors worn, voice tone, writing style) because what makes someone's ES strong differs person to person — the course's value is being witnessed by others and having your ES reflected back to you piece by piece.
- Meta-example of his own ES in action: says he won't read the community values aloud on video — reading things to the camera, he says, just isn't part of his energy.
- Names that ES is never a one-time act of settling on who you are for the rest of your life — it keeps evolving, and the course community itself is framed as a group that forms anew only for the run of the course. (That group has since ended.)
The full lesson text (click to show)
A warm welcome here!
I see this course as a community... but it’s not just random comments from random people, but rather, focused comments about specific topics, from your kindred spirits.
The most important part of a community is its culture. I consider each of us to be culture-setters. We influence the culture with every interaction we have here.
A few values I recommend that we keep in mind:
- Comment once, reply twice. For each comment that you make in the Student Discussion doc, look for 2 other people's comments (especially ones with few comments) and add a reply – with your encouragement and suggestions (if appropriate). This helps to balance the comment/reply ratio, and gives you practice in seeking and giving support in this community.
- Notice and name each others' energy signatures. Each person's presence is unique, and each person has their strengths. It can be difficult for us to notice our own, and easier to notice others'. Whenever you reply to someone’s comment, try to name something, however small, that you appreciate about their energy signature. We all have a fear of being fully seen. Let’s help each other feel fully accepted and received.
- Receive deeply what others see/feel from you. It’s a meaningful practice. It’ll help you integrate and express better your energy signature.
Let me know at my free monthly Q&A call if these values are helpful, and if you have any suggestions.
The values we embody together here is what makes this course experience amazing for each other 😊
At the start of the course... what do you think Energy Signature means?
Video · 4 min
Before this course gets going... and bias you with an idea of what “energy signature” might mean... first share your initial thoughts in the Student Discussion doc. At this moment, what does "energy signature" mean to you? 🙏🏼
All ideas are welcome!
Remember: after you comment in the Student Discussion doc, try to take a look at 2 of the recent comments that have no replies yet, and reply with appreciation :)
Check out the live chats from zoom for this segment here.
Key points from the video
- States his coaching philosophy directly: help the client find the answer from within before he biases them with his own view — this is why the course opens with a blank-slate question rather than a definition.
- Half-joking sign-off after reading students' first answers: he playfully thanks them for finishing the course and wishes them a good life — a nod that some may feel they could stop right here.
- Repeats that there's no "right" definition — anyone's answer is as valid as his; what matters is the ripple effect your expression creates, not a dictionary description.
What do you think is unique about your energy signature?
Video · 5 min
Extra video 1 · 2 min
Extra video 2 · 1 min
What do you think is unique about your energy signature?
Share in the Student Discussion doc if you'd like. All ideas are welcome.
At the end of the course, I’ll give you a template to organize your notes.
For now, let’s comment without concern for organizing.
Again, after you comment in the Student Discussion doc, take a look at 2 of the recent comments that have no replies yet, and reply with appreciation :)
Check out the live chats from zoom for this segment here.
Key points from the video
- Frames this as a deliberate "time capsule" — keep it separate from the deeper frameworks coming later; don't overthink it.
- Explicitly invites borrowing and overlapping with others' answers: however similar people are, each is still a tiny drop in a vast ocean of difference, so shared answers don't erase uniqueness.
- Live emotional disclosure: reading students' comments leaves him feeling more whole, more healed, more courageous and more empowered — modeling why the witnessing/reflection loop matters to him personally.
- Additional video on where these comments end up: a template later in the course will let students see the bigger picture and sort these reflections in one place.
- Additional video on why your own ES is hard to see: key reframe — it's as normal as not knowing what you look like until you look in a mirror, which is exactly why the course leans on others noticing you, not just self-reflection.
George's answers to students' questions (click to show)
A student shared: "As English is my second language, I have always struggled to speak it well enough to be acceptable (to me 😊 as I'm my worst critic). I've found it easier to write my script and then deliver it while reading it on the screen verbatim. After learning from however, I felt that reading it was not authentic enough and that I needed to be as authentic as George: speaking directly to the …"
George replied: I love this! Indeed we all differ in some important ways as to our energy signature. Thanks for sharing this example of video scripts.
A student shared: "I'm taking this course again from the beginning, and thus I'm deleting my old comments to make space for bringing the current me fully into the picture <3 What do I think is unique about my energy signature? It’s typically very engaging, and full of energy (not necessarily "high" energy). There’s a lot of life force energy behind me - “showing up with breath!”. It’s fun and inspiring to engage …"
George replied: I've been appreciating your energy signature in JoyPro very much 😊🙌
Feeling and Thinking / Heart vs Head (?) as we discover our energy signature...
Video · 4 min
Extra video 1 · 1 min
Thanks to Shoubhik for bringing up this topic, and Sophia's additional video below!
You are welcome to comment in the Student Discussion doc as well.
Key points from the video
- Live small-group Q&A sparked by a student's comment that they ought to think less and feel more as they go into the course's exercises.
- George's answer: ES work is a dance between the two — early exercises look cognitive (words, writing) but should be felt into; later, real analysis is needed once ES gets applied to market positioning against niche-mates and other providers.
- George notes that diving into ES takes courage, vulnerability and a willingness to visit painful places, and that experimentation and exploration are exactly what the course exists to invite.
In contrast with the average person, what’s unique about you / your energy signature?
Video · 4 min
Extra video 1 · 1 min
How is your energy signature when contrasted with the average person?
How are you different… or very different? :)
If you can’t think of an “average” person, think about 3 people you know well, such as family members: how are you different from them in terms of your strengths, skills, style?
What is the difference, from them, in your way of being and behaving, when you feel really alive?
Check out the live chats from zoom for this segment here.
Key points from the video
- Notes the repeated "what's unique" framing across several lessons is deliberate — same core question approached from different angles/doorways.
- Gives explicit permission to answer privately in your own journal instead, if that helps you be more honest and vulnerable.
- Second lens beyond "average person": picture your ideal client's typical day — family, coworkers, neighbors, friends — and ask how you differ in energy from everyone else they interact with.
George's answers to students' questions (click to show)
George added: Another way of asking this question -- in what way(s) are you "weird" or unusual? :)
What's easier for you than for others?
Video · 5 min
Extra video 1 · 2 min
What things come more easily for you than many other people?
(If it’s easier, think about 3 people you know well, e.g. family members. What’s easier for you -- or feels like play -- that feels like work for them?)
Look back to your childhood and what came naturally…
What activities, subjects, or skills did you gravitate to and excel at without much formal training?
What did you enjoy learning about or tinkering with?
Examine your natural talents, personality traits, and interests that were seeded early on… from your core, as well as your environment and upbringing.
Remember: after you comment in the Student Discussion doc, take a look at 2 of the recent comments that have no replies yet, and reply with appreciation :)
Check out the live chats from zoom for this segment here.
Key points from the video
- Gives two explicit lenses for "what's easier for you": (1) ease from training/expertise, and (2) an innate ease present most of your life, where you're surprised others find it hard.
- Invites answering from both nature (DNA, early wiring) and nurture (upbringing, how you coped) as sources of your natural facility.
- Additional video ("comparison-itis"): normalizes anxiety around comparing yourself to others sharing — humans are tribal beings, shaped by a million years of evolution to care what the tribe thinks.
- Calls the course community a safe harbor — a very welcoming, nurturing space. (That community has since ended.)
- Reframes vulnerability-anxiety as evidence you're doing the work of moving beyond "comparison-itis," not a personal failing.
How are you similar to your kindred spirits... what does that say about your collective energy signature?
Video · 1 min
Think about your kindred spirits… your favorite colleagues and close friends: how are you, collectively, different than others?
This also gives clues to your energy signature.
Check out the live chats from zoom for this segment here.
Key points from the video
- Suggests thinking in concentric circles to answer the prompt: you + your 2 closest friends vs. the rest of the world reveals one layer of shared "weirdness"; you + your professional peers vs. other industries reveals another.
- Each circle you draw gives a different facet of your collective energy signature, which in turn gives clues to your individual one.
Who has strong energy signature and what is it like?
Video · 4 min
Extra video 1 · 2 min
Think of people you know – what is it about their energy signatures that you notice? Maybe you can tell them :)
Think of celebrities and thought leaders you don’t know – what is it about their energy signature that is very obvious to you?
How might this insight give additional clues to your own energy signature?
Check out the live chats from zoom for this segment here.
Key points from the video
- Coaches for specificity over generic praise: "loving" isn't enough — push for more precise, less broadly-applicable language.
- Notes negative/critical descriptors are just as diagnostically useful as positive ones for sharpening perception.
- Additional video on whether to notice only positive signatures: advises keeping strongly negative reactions to real, named people private (avoids friction/antagonism) — but still worth privately noticing.
- Key reframe: repulsion is diagnostic, working like a magnet — being repelled by someone's ES implies a strong internal sensor tuned to the opposite quality, which often hints at the ES you personally aspire to.
George's answers to students' questions (click to show)
A student shared: "I am assuming here that we are talking about a positively experienced energy signature. I can think of many that are strong and off-putting. Likely that isn't what you mean."
George replied: Thanks for the question! I added a supplemental video above on this topic.
🤗 Ask your supportive network to tell you about your energy signature...
Video · 6 min
Extra video 1 · 1 min
Extra video 2 · 1 min
Key points from the video
- Frames the outreach exercise as planting a seed — ES isn't meaningful broadcast into a void; it needs to be received by real people, which is why the course starts building audience-feedback muscle this early.
- Softens the written instructions' ask of 10 people down to a floor of just 3, to lower the activation-energy barrier to actually doing it.
- Explicitly confirms clients can be included among the people you ask.
- Additional video: if the phrase "energy signature" would confuse your network, swap in "unique strengths" or "unique traits" instead — they aren't exact synonyms, so use whatever wording gets the most responses.
- Additional video on having no social media audience: you don't need followers — email, DM, or classmates/colleagues you've stayed in touch with all count as your network.
- The full process (6 steps): (1) list 10 people who know you well; (2) ask them what you're good at more than most people, or how you're different in a good way; (3) post publicly and message those 10 for comments, OR send the question privately and follow up 2 days before a 1-week deadline; (4) collect all responses into one document and, if you'd like, feed them to an AI assistant to surface the top 10 commonly-mentioned things; (5) post that top-10 list to your social media and ask your audience to vote on their top 3 and add anything else; (6) send the second post's link back to your original 10 to thank them.
The full lesson text (click to show)
- Write down the names of 10 people (friends, family, colleagues) who know you well enough to speak to this question:
- Ask them this question:
What do you see that I'm good at, more than most people you know? Or how am I different, in a good way? All ideas are welcome :) For example, you might have noticed specific types of activities I gravitate towards, or some kind of work I might excel in. What I’m naturally energized by. Or anything you’ve noticed about my character strengths that you appreciate. In other words… what’s unique about my energy signature?
- [Feel free to rewrite this in your own words and add anything else you like... though be careful not to overwhelm your people.]
- Two versions of this next step, public or private...
1. Public version: Post this wherever you get the most comments on social media, e.g. your Facebook profile. Immediately get the link to your post and message those 10 friends: ask them to comment on that post if possible, which will help amplify the post… or if they prefer not to, they can reply privately. Even just 1 or 2 things they’ve noticed will be helpful.
2. Private version: send the question to the 10 people, asking them to reply within 1 week. Then 2 days before the due date, remind them you'd love their response: even if it's just a few words, it will still be helpful. Example from Brandon Wong (shared here with his permission)
- Put all the responses into one document, so you can look for commonalities among the answers...
1. It’s easier if you want to use Ai to help: paste in all the responses and ask it for the top 10 commonly mentioned things.
2. Tools include: Bing Chat (use “creative” mode), ChatGPT, Claude.
- Then post on your social media what the top 10 commonly mentioned things are... and ask your social media audience to vote on what they think your top 3 traits are, and to add anything else they think of.
- Send the link to this second post to the original 10 you reached out to, to thank them for helping you continue to clarify your strengths 😊
- Share in the Student Discussion doc the link to the post(s) you made in Step 3 and/or Step 5! Make sure it’s a public post if you’re sharing it with us.
Again, after you comment in the Student Discussion doc, take a look at 2 of the recent comments that have no replies yet, and reply with appreciation :)
George's answers to students' questions (click to show)
A student shared: "I too, (like a classmate in the comment immediately above) had major resistance to this particular exercise. Even just to ask -- and people that I'm closest with, in the 10 personalized emails I finally sent out -- felt outrageously vulnerable. But thankfully, through the support and examples of everyone in this course who've already shared, I finally just DID it... and OF COURSE -- was …"
George replied: SUPER encouraging to see you do this and share the results with us! Thank you 🙌🌞
😬 Resistant to asking your audience?
Video · 5 min
Extra video 1 · 2 min
Ana Maria's Comment
Key points from the video
- George reads out a student's comment about resisting asking her audience for feedback, rooted in a default belief that she isn't worth other people's time — and her pleasant surprise getting all 8 replies within 24 hours after modeling her ask on someone else's Facebook post.
- George's added distinction: the feedback itself isn't the deepest point — the real value of these exercises is that doing them surfaces limiting beliefs, and in the process you find more of your authentic power.
- Explicit caveat: her 24-hour turnaround is not a typical expectation — George tells everyone watching not to count on replies that fast.
- Additional video on whether your audience is just being nice to you: distinguishes reflexive politeness from the specificity of these prompts — you're asking for something concrete, not whether they like you, so even a people-pleasing reply channels genuine, usable signal. His own hard-won practice with feedback (positive or the rare critical comment): let it all wash over you like a flood and catch whichever useful fish you can, rather than fixating on any one comment.
George's answers to students' questions (click to show)
A student shared: "I've asked about 15 people and I'm so confused. The things they said are making me rethink my entire trajectory. Some of the things they said, I thought I'd gotten "better" about those traits but I guess not. It's been a little bit of a blow but now I'm rethinking my business and everything. Kind of a strange moment. I think this is why I'm not able to make my business work. What do you …"
George replied: sorry to hear that! I'd love to learn more about what feedback you got and why it felt destabilizing. Maybe on a Q&A call?
A student shared: "If you are about to skip this exercise, please dont...I was about to skip given my last corporate role where I frequently sought feedback. I felt I asked and received very geninue feedback to help me build my awareness. However, after watching this video, I revisited the last video to find the email template from Brandon, with an intend to thank those who made me feel I can be myself with. I …"
George replied: thank you for this comment! I'm so glad you did the exercise.
George added: just want to thank you for these beautiful, healing, encouraging responses 💛
George added: it's insightful of you to see the various parts! and sometimes painful... and I'm sorry that the pushing down/through re: the less-desirable parts haven't worked. Of course, there are many strategies (many of which I'm not aware of 😆) for working with these things, and I'm sure you have tested many as well.
My sense about it is that your positive aspects definitely trump (sorry) the so called "negative" aspects of you -- at least in the eyes of your clients, friends, fans.
They are here for ALL of you. However it shows up in business.
But I can imagine that the scattered/chaotic parts makes it harder to be consistent or structured in part of business that benefit from that.
And yet, you've made it work up to now though? You've had (many) clients who have valued your work. Members who have been grateful for your support, etc.
So I'm not sure it's a sign to stop your business, unless you really want to, of course.
And yet, are you also giving enough time to your writing/art?
I mean... if you're feeling too pained in running a biz AND can truly financially do without it... that's a separate discussion and maybe worth having.
George added:
inner rational authoritarian perfectionist and my impulsive playful rebel
brilliant description of what so many of us soulpreneurs deal with :)
Practice your observation of ES and take notes in the next few weeks...
Video · 5 min
Extra video 1 · 2 min
As you…
- Do things or behave in a way that helps you feel alive / in your element / on purpose with your life.
- Do things or behave in a way that others appreciate... or perhaps even marvel at!
- Make “mistakes” while being fully yourself – look behind or above that mistake -- what might be a good characteristic that is part of your energy signature?
Homework – add your comment in the Student Discussion doc with one (or more answers) to each of these questions.
Key points from the video
- Encourages a running phone note as the tracking tool (it's with you all the time).
- Names three explicit data streams to log: (1) what makes you feel alive vs. drained; (2) natural strengths that make you feel alive and capable; (3) moments of boldness followed by embarrassment or an urge to delete a post.
- Shares a saying he popularized among his clients, post first and get therapy afterward, for that third pattern — his own recurring experience after posting something authentically vulnerable.
- A related third lens on the same tracking habit: when you make "mistakes" while being fully yourself, look behind or above the mistake for the good characteristic it reveals about your ES — the slip itself can be diagnostic, not just embarrassing.
- Additional video on the source of anxiety: reframes posting-anxiety itself as diagnostic — notice which trait triggers the anxiety, because it usually signals something that feels too strong or too weird for a general audience but is exactly what your ideal audience craves; they soak it up like water in a desert. Personal example: he doesn't want extended family watching his videos — he imagines them wondering what happened to the little George they knew — because they never saw this facet of his ES growing up.
"Energy Signature" vs. "Brand"?
Video · 5 min
Thanks to Guillaume Wiatr for bringing up this interesting topic. Feel free to share your thoughts on this in the Student Discussion doc!
Key points from the video
- Extended live dialogue with a student who is a business and marketing expert, prompted by another student's question about energy signature versus brand.
- George: has an MBA and still finds the word brand muddy — he has never taught a class on branding — and for him the phrase energy signature has more meaning and replaces brand in his mind.
- A student's distinction, which George praises: brand has two facets — (1) the controllable assets (colors, fonts, persona, messaging), and (2) what audiences actually perceive and feel — the second facet is the one that overlaps most with energy signature and matters more than the first.
- George relays that someone wrote asking when his "energy fingerprint" class starts, and muses that name might have been even more brilliant than energy signature, since fingerprints can't be forged the way signatures can.
After you watch
If you’d like more after watching: The Your Energy Signature course. If you buy the course, this module comes with it, along with all the others, and you keep them for life.
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If you’d like to keep going, the complete Your Energy Signature course is available for enrollment: The Your Energy Signature course. If you buy the course, this module comes with it, along with all the others, and you keep them for life.