Hey friend,
Welcome back to the Primal Question Newsletter.
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Last week, I told you the story of how Primal Question started with one question in a cloud.
This week, I have a BIG announcement.
We’re about to launch a brand new Primal Question Assessment!
I’m excited about this one, and I want to tell you why it matters to you, even if you already know your Primal Question.
From the very beginning, this whole thing has been about one word: clarity.
That’s why I wrote a book. That’s why we built an assessment. It’s why we create courses, run workshops, and train coaches. Every single thing we do is about helping you see the most important thing driving your life, and see it clearly.
Here’s why that matters so much to me.
When we live in confusion, we stay stuck. We keep circling the same fights, the same patterns, the same frustrations, and we can’t figure out why. And if we’re honest? Sometimes, we don’t mind this stuckness.
Confusion has a sneaky payoff.
If I’m not sure what’s going on inside me, I don’t have to do the hard work of change. I don’t have to be vulnerable. I don’t have to take responsibility. I don’t have to face the pain that clarity requires of me.
Ambiguity keeps us exactly where we are.
I see this all the time in my coaching.
A couple will finally put words to the root of their conflict, and two sessions later, they’re right back up in the canopy of the tree. They’re arguing about the dishes again, when they know full well it’s not about the dishes. Part of me wants to shout, “We already found it! Why are you running from clarity?”
Because when we finally get clarity on our core driver and stay laser-focused on it, everything changes.
You stop arguing about the dishes and start talking about what you actually need from your spouse. You stop wondering why you reacted the way you did and start owning it. You stop scrambling and start living into your unique strengths.
With clarity, you experience deeper connections and more peace in life.
That’s why we created the original free assessment.
It started as a companion to my book, The Seven Primal Questions. Some people took it before reading. Some took it after. Either way, it gave people a starting point and the language to name what was going on inside them.
And from day one, we’ve been improving it.
Over the past 3 years, we’ve kept sharpening it. We made the statements more precise, made it shorter to avoid assessment fatigue, and learned something new from every result. All of this with one goal in mind: help as many people as possible get clear on their Primal Question so they can stop guessing and start growing.
To date, over 200,000 people have taken the original version, and the response has been incredible.
But here’s the thing.
Clarity isn’t the only thing that matters.
You also need confidence in that clarity.
In other words, you need to know your result is real and reliable. Because if you don’t trust your result, you won’t act on it. Your Primal Question becomes another fun fact for dinner parties instead of the thing that creates a seismic shift in your life.
That’s why we decided to take the free assessment more seriously than ever.
Because, friends, this is serious work.
We try to keep things fun and lighthearted around here, and we always will. But the truth is, your Primal Question is behind some of the deepest pain and friction in your life. We’re talking about marriages, families, callings, and childhood wounds.
Many people are suffering because they have no idea what’s driving them, so we will do whatever it takes to get this right.
That’s why, instead of working within the limits of a third-party platform, we brought in a team of engineers to custom build a new assessment from the ground up.
The result is a brand new version that’s more accurate at identifying your Primal Question.
The old assessment got it right the vast majority of the time.
But there were a few spots where it could get mixed up. For example, “Am I loved?” and “Am I good enough?” can look a lot alike on the surface. So can “Am I secure?” and “Am I successful?” If your answers landed close between two questions like those, the old assessment just picked the higher score because it had no way to dig deeper.
The new one can.
It now sees your results in real time as you take it.
When your answers start pointing toward two closely related questions, it creates a fork in the road. The assessment serves up specific tiebreaker questions to figure out which one is really yours. But the part I’m most excited about?
The new assessment has undergone independent psychometric validation.
We brought in an industrial-organizational psychologist to put the Primal Question under the microscope. He ran a study with a group of participants to test the accuracy and reliability of our new assessment. He’s also weighing in on the wording of the statements to make them as precise as possible.
I’ll share more about what he found in a couple of weeks.
Why have we spent a full year going through all of this extra effort? Because you deserve clarity about your Primal Question, and confidence in your result. No more ambiguity. No more second-guessing. No more confusion that stalls your growth.
We’re putting the finishing touches on the visual design right now, and the new free assessment launches in a few weeks.
Here’s why I’m telling you early:
We need your help!
There are people in your life who need clarity. When the new assessment launches, I’m asking you to share it with them. I’m not talking about posting about it to strangers on social media (although you’re welcome to). I’m talking about real conversations with your people.
Your spouse. Your parents. Your kids. Your closest friends.
The holidays are right around the corner, and for a lot of families, that means friction. Old patterns. The same arguments at the same dinner table.
But what if this year was different?
What if everyone around that table knew each other’s Primal Question? What if, instead of the same old fight, you had the deepest, richest conversations you’ve ever had with the people you love most? That’s one of the reasons we’re launching the new assessment now.
We want it in your hands in time for the holidays.
So that’s my one ask.
When the new free assessment comes out, take it again yourself. Then share it with your people. Talk about it together.
And watch what shifts.
To your growth,
Mike Foster
P.S. I cannot wait to share this with you!
Do you have any questions about the new assessment? Let me know in the comments!
Get fired up!
I love it!